PIONEERS    OF    EVOLUTION 

FROM  THALES  TO  HUXLEY 


WITH    AN    INTERMEDIATE   CHAPTER   ON 
THE   CAUSES   OF   ARREST   OF   THE    MOVEMENT 


BY 

EDWARD   CLODD 

PRESIDENT    OF    THE    FOt^tOllE    SOCIETY 

AUTHOR    OF    THE    CHILDHOOD    OF    THE    WORLD, 

THE    STORY    OF    CREATION, 

THE    STORY    OF    PRIMITIVE    MAN,    ETC. 


IVITH  PORTRAITS 


NEW    YORK 

D.    APPLETON    AND     COMPANY 

1897 


QH 
30/ 


Copyright,  1897, 
By  D.    APPLETON    AND   COMPANY. 


O'NEILL  LIBRARY 
%     BOSTON  COLLEGE 


O 


%  V 


TO    MY   BELOVED 

A.  A.  L. 

WHOSE    FELLOWSHIP   AND    HELP 
HAVE    SWEETENED    LIFE. 


PREFACE. 


This  book  needs  only  brief  introduction.  It  at- 
tempts to  tell  the  story  of  the  origin  of  the  Evolution 
idea  in  Ionia,  and,  after  long  arrest,  of  the  revival 
of  that  idea  in  modern  times,  when  its  profound  and 
permanent  influence  on  thought  in  all  directions, 
and,  therefore,  on  human  relations  and  conduct,  is 
apparent. 

Between  birth  and  revival  there  were  the  cen- 
turies of  suspended  animation,  when  the  nepenthe 
of  dogma  drugged  the  reason;  the  Church  teaching, 
and  the  laity  mechanically  accepting,  the  sufficiency 
of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  General  Councils  to  de- 
cide on  matters  which  lie  outside  the  domain  of 
both.  Hence  the  necessity  for  particularizing  the 
causes  which  actively  arrested  advance  in  knowledge 
for  sixteen  himdred  years. 

In  indicating  the  parts  severally  played  in  the 
Renascence  of  Evolution  by  a  small  group  of  illus- 
trious men,  the  writer,  through  the  courtesy  of  Mr. 

V 


vi         -  PREFACE, 

Herbert  Spencer,  has  been  permitted  to  see  the  origi- 
nal documents  which  show  that  the  theory  of  Evolu- 
tion as  a  whole;  i.  e.,  as  dealing  with  the  non-living, 
as  well  as  with  the  living,  contents  of  the  Universe, 
was  formulated  by  Mr.  Spencer  in  the  year  pre- 
ceding the  pubHcation  of  the  Origin  of  Species. 

ROSEMONT,  TUFNELL  PARK,  LONDON,  N., 

14th  December,  i8g6. 


CONTENTS. 


PART   I. 

PAGE 

Pioneers  of  Evolution  from  Thales  to  Lucretius — 

B.  c.  600-A.  D.  50     .  .  .  .  ,1 

PART   II. 
The  Arrest  of  Inquiry — a.  d.  50-A.  d.  1600. 

1.  From  the  Early  Christian  Period  to  the  time 

of  Augustine — a.  d.  50-A.  d.  400  .  .        37 

2.  From  Augustine  to  Lord  Bacon — a.  d.  400- 

A.  D.  1600     ......         73 


PART   III. 
The  Renascence  of  Science — A.  d.  1600  onward 


99 


PART   IV. 

Modern  Evolution — 

1.  Darwin  and  Wallace       .  .  ,  .126 

2.  Herbert  Spencer   .  .  .  .  .175 

3.  Thomas  Henry  Huxley   ....      201 

Index  .......      267 

vii 


"  Nature,  which  governs  the  whole,  will  soon  change  all 
things  which  thou  seest,  and  out  of  their  substance  will 
make  other  things,  and  again  other  things  from  the  sub- 
stance of  them,  in  order  that  the  world  may  be  ever  new." 

Marcus  Aureliiis,  vii,  25. 


PIONEERS    OF    EVOLUTION. 


PART  I. 


PIONEERS   OF    EVOLUTION   FROM    THALES 
TO    LUCRETIUS. 

B.  C.  600-A.  D.  50. 

"  These  all  died  in  faith,  not  having  received  the  promises,  but 
having  seen  them  afar  off,  and  were  persuaded  of  them." — He- 
brews xi.  13. 

*'  One  event  is  always  the  son  of  another,  and  we 
must  never  forget  the  parentage,"  said  a  Bechuana 
chief  to  CasaHs  the  missionary.  The  barbarian  phi- 
losopher spoke  wiser  than  he  knew,  for  in  his  words 
lay  that  doctrine  of  continuity  and  unity  which  is  the 
creed  of  modern  science.  They  are  a  suitable  text 
to  the  discourse  of  this  chapter,  the  design  of  which 
is  to  bring  out  what  the  brilliancy  of  present-day 
discoveries  tends  to  throw  into  shadow,  namely,  the 
antiquity  of  the  ideas  of  which  those  discoveries  are 
the  result.  Although  the  Theory  of  Evolution,  as  we 
define  it,  is  new,  the  speculations  which  made  it  pos- 
sible are,  at  least,  twenty-five  centuries  old.  In- 
deed, it  is  not  practicable,  since  the  remote  past 
yields  no  documents,  to  fix  their  beginnings.  More- 
over, charged,  as  they  are,  with  many  crudities,  they 
are  not  detachable  from  the  barbaric  conceptions  of 


2  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

the  Universe  which  are  the  philosophies  of  past,  and 
the  legends  of  present,  times. 

Fontenelle,  a  writer  of  the  last  century,  shrewdly 
remarked  that  "  all  nations  made  the  astounding  part 
of  their  myths  while  they  were  savage,  and  retained 
them  from  custom  and  religious  conservatism."  For, 
as  Walter  Bagehot  argues  in  his  brilliant  little  book 
on  Physics  and  Politics,  and  as  all  anthropological 
research  goes  to  prove,  the  lower  races  are  non- 
progressive both  through  fear  and  instinct.  And  the 
majority  of  the  members  of  higher  races  have  not 
escaped  from  the  operation  of  the  same  causes. 
Hence  the  persistence  of  coarse  and  grotesque  ele- 
ments in  speculations  wherein  man  has  made  grad- 
ual approach  to  the  truth  of  things;  hence,  too — 
the  like  phenomena  having  to  be  interpreted — the 
similarity  of  the  explanation  of  them.  And  as  primi- 
tive myth  embodies  primitive  theology,  primitive 
morals,  and  primitive  science,  the  history  of  beliefs 
shows  how  few  there  be  who  have  escaped  from  the 
tyranny  of  that  authority  and  sanctity  with  which 
the  lapse  of  time  invests  old  ideas. 

Dissatisfaction  is  a  necessary  condition  of  pro- 
gress; and  dissatisfaction  involves  opposition.  As 
Grant  Allen  puts  it,  in  one  of  his  most  felicitous 
poems: 

If  systems  that  be  are  the  order  of  God, 

Revolt  is  a  part  of  the  order. 

Hence  a  stage  in  the  history  of  certain  peoples  when, 
in  questioning  what  is  commonly  accepted,  intellec- 


FROM    THALES   TO  LUCRETIUS.  3 

tual  freedom  is  born.  Such  a  stage  was  markedly 
reached  whenever,  for  example,  an  individual  here 
and  there  challenged  the  current  belief  about  the 
beginnings  and  nature  of  things,  beliefs  held  because 
they  were  taught,  not  because  their  correspondence 
with  fact  had  been  examined. 

A  pioneer  (French,  pionnier;  Italian,  pedone; 
from  Latin  pedes)  is,  literally,  a  foot-soldier;  one 
who  goes  before  an  army  to  clear  the  road  of  ob- 
structions. Hence  the  application  of  the  term  to 
men  who  are  in  the  van  of  any  new  movement; 
hence  its  special  fitness  in  the  present  connection,  as 
designating  men  whose  speculations  cut  a  pathway 
through  jungles  of  myth  and  legend  to  the  realities 
of  things.  The  Pioneers  of  Evolution — the  first  on 
record  to  doubt  the  truth  of  the  theory  of  special 
creation,  whether  as  the  work  of  departmental  gods 
or  of  one  Supreme  Deity,  matters  not — -lived  in 
Greece  about  the  time  already  mentioned;  six  cen- 
turies before  Christ.  Not  in  the  early  stages  of  the 
Evolution  idea,  in  the  Greece  limited,  as  now,  to  a 
rugged  peninsula  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  Eu- 
rope and  to  the  surrounding  islands,  but  in  the  Greece 
which  then  included  Ionia,  on  the  opposite  sea- 
board of  Asia  Minor. 

From  times  beyond  memory  or  record,  the  isl- 
ands of  the  yEgean  had  been  the  nurseries  of  culture 
and  adventure.  Thence  the  maritime  inhabitants 
had  spread  themselves  both  east  and  west,  feeding 
the  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  imbibing  influences  from 


4  PIONEERS   OE  EVOLUTION, 

older  civilizations,  notably  of  Egypt  and  Chaldsea. 
But,  mix  as  they  might  with  other  peoples,  the 
Greeks  never  lost  their  own  strongly  marked  indi- 
viduality, and,  in  imparting  what  they  had  acquired 
or  discovered  to  younger  peoples,  that  is,  younger 
in  culture,  they  stamped  it  with  an  impress  all  their 
own. 

At  the  later  period  with  which  we  are  deahng, 
refugees  from  the  Peloponnesus,  who  would  not  sub- 
mit to  the  Dorian  yoke,  had  been  long  settled  in 
Ionia.  To  what  extent  they  had  been  influenced 
by  contact  with  their  neighbours  is  a  question  which, 
even  were  it  easy  to  answer,  need  not  occupy  us 
here.  Certain  it  is  that  trade  and  travel  had  widened 
their  intellectual  horizon,  and  although  India  lay  too 
remote  to  touch  them  closely  (if  that  incurious, 
dreamy  East  had  touched  them,  it  would  have  taught 
them  nothing),  there  was  Babylonia  with  her  star- 
watchers,  and  Egypt  with  her  land-surveyors.  From 
the  one,  these  lonians  probably  gained  knowledge 
of  certain  periodic  movements  of  some  of  the  heav- 
enly bodies;  and  from  the  other,  a  few  rules  of 
mensuration,  perchance  a  little  crude  science.  But 
this  is  conjecture.  For  all  the  rest  that  she  evolved, 
and  with  which  she  enriched  the  world,  ancient 
Greece  is  in  debt  to  none. 

While  the  Oriental  shrunk  from  quest  after 
causes,  looking,  as  Professor  Butcher  aptly  remarks 
in  his  Aspects  of  the  Greek  Genius,  on  "  each  fresh 
gain  of  earth  as  so  much  robbery  of  heaven,"  the 


FROM    THALES    TO   LUCRETIUS.  5 

Greek  eagerly  sought  for  the  law  governing  the  facts 
around  him.  And  in  Ionia  was  born  the  idea  foreign 
to  the  East,  but  which  has  become  the  starting-point 
of  all  subsequent  scientific  inquiry — the  idea  that 
Nature  works  by  fixed  laws.  Sir  Henry  Maine  said 
that  ''  except  the  blind  forces  of  Nature,  nothing 
moves  which  is  not  Greek  in  its  origin,"  and  we  feel 
how  hard  it  is  to  avoid  exaggeration  when  speaking 
of  the  heritage  bequeathed  by  Greece  as  the  giver 
of  every  fruitful,  quickening  idea  which  has  devel- 
oped human  faculty  on  all  sides,  and  enriched  every 
province  of  life.  Amid  serious  defects  of  character, 
as  craftiness,  avariciousness,  and  unscrupulousness, 
the  Greeks  had  the  redeeming  grace  of  pursuit  after 
knowledge  which  naught  could  baffle  (Plato,  Repub- 
lic, vol.  iv,  p.  435),  and  that  healthy  outlook  on  things 
which  saved  them  from  morbid  introspection.  There 
arose  among  them  no  Simeon  Stylites  to  mount  his 
profitless  pillar;  no  filth-ingrained  fakir  to  waste  life 
in  contemplating  the  tip  of  his  nose;  no  schoolman 
to  idly  speculate  how  many  angels  could  dance  upon 
a  needle's  point;  or  to  debate  such  fatuous  questions 
as  the  language  which  the  saints  in  heaven  will  speak 
after  the  Last  Judgment. 

In  his  excellent  and  cautious  survey  of  Early 
Greek  Philosophy,  which  we  mainly  follow  in  this 
section.  Professor  Burnet  says  that  the  real  advance 
made  by  the  lonians  was  through  their  *'  leaving  off 
telling  tales.  They  gave  up  the  hopeless  task  of 
describing  what  was  when  as  yet  there  was  nothing, 


6  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

and  asked  instead  what  all  things  really  are  now." 
For  the  early  notions  of  the  Greeks  about  nature, 
being  an  inheritance  from  their  barbaric  ancestors, 
were  embodied  in  myths  and  legends  bearing  strong 
resemblance  to  those  found  among  the  uncivilized 
tribes  of  Polynesia  and  elsewhere  in  our  day.  For 
example,  the  old  nature-myth  of  Cronus  separating 
heaven  and  earth  by  the  mutilation  of  Uranus  occurs 
among  Chinese,  Japanese,  and  Maoris,  and  among 
the  ancient  Hindus  and  Egyptians. 

The  earliest  school  of  scientific  speculation  was 
at  Miletus,  the  most  flourishing  city  of  Ionia.  Thales, 
whose  name  heads  the  list  of  the  "  Seven  Sages," 
was  its  founder.  As  with  other  noted  philosophers 
of  this  and  later  periods,  neither  the  exact  date  of  his 
birth  nor  of  his  death  are  known,  but  the  sixth 
century  before  Christ  may  be  held  to  cover  the  period 
w^hen  he  ''  flourished." 

That  "  nothing  comes  into  being  out  of  nothing, 
and  that  nothing  passes  away  into  nothing,"  was  the 
conviction  with  which  he  and  those  who  followed 
him  started  on  their  quest.  All  around  was  change; 
everything  always  becoming  something  else;  "  all  in 
motion  Hke  streams."  There  must  be  that  which  is 
the  vehicle  of  all  the  changes,  and  of  all  the  motions 
which  produce  them.  What,  therefore,  was  this  per- 
manent and  primary  substance?  in  other  words,  of 
what  is  the  world  made?  And  Thales,  perhaps 
through  observing  that  it  could  become  vaporous, 
Hquid,  and  solid  in  turn;  perhaps — if,  as  tradition 


FROM   THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS.  j 

records,  he  visited  Egypt — through  watching  the 
wonder-working,  Hfe-giving  Nile;  perhaps  as  doubt- 
less sharing  the  current  belief  in  an  ocean-washed 
earth,  said  that  the  primary  substance  was  Water. 
Anaximander,  his  friend  and  pupil,  disagreeing  with 
what  seemed  to  him  a  too  concrete  answer,  argued, 
in  more  abstract  fashion,  that  ''  the  material  cause 
and  first  element  of  things  was  the  Infinite."  This 
material  cause,  which  he  was  the  first  thus  to  name, 
"  is  neither  water  nor  any  other  of  what  are  now 
called  the  elements'''  (we  quote  from  Theophrastus, 
the  famous  pupil  of  Aristotle,  born  at  Eresus  in  Les- 
bos, 371  B.  c).  Perhaps,  following  Professor  Bur- 
net's able  guidance  through  the  complexities  of  defi- 
nitions, the  term  Boundless  best  expresses  the 
*'  one  eternal,  indestructible  substance  out  of  which 
everything  arises,  and  into  which  everything  once 
more  returns  " ;  in  other  words,  the  exhaustless  stock 
of  matter  from  which  the  waste  of  existence  is  being 
continually  made  good, 

Anaximander  was  the  first  to  assert  the  origin  of 
life  from  the  non-living,  i.  e.,  "  the  moist  element  as 
it  was  evaporated  by  the  sun,"  and  to  speak  of  man 
as  "  like  another  animal,  namely,  a  fish,  in  the  be- 
ginning." This  looks  well-nigh  akin  to  prevision  of 
the  mutability  of  species,  and  of  what  modern  biology 
has  proved  concerning  the  marine  ancestry  of  the 
highest  animals,  although  it  is  one  of  many  ancient 
speculations  as  to  the  origin  of  life  in  slimy  matter. 
And   when   Anaximander   adds   that   *'  while   other 


8  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

animals  quickly  find  food  for  themselves,  man  alone 
requires  a  prolonged  period  of  suckling,"  he  antici- 
pates the  modern  explanation  of  the  "origin  of  the 
rudimentary  family  through  the  development  of  the 
social  instincts  and  affections.  The  lengthening  of 
the  period  of  infancy  involves  dependence  on  the 
parents,  and  evolves  the  sympathy  which  lies  at  the 
base  of  social  relations.  (Cf.  Fiske's  Outlines  of  Cos- 
mic Philosophy,  vol.  ii,  pp.  344,  360.) 

In  dealing  with  speculations  so  remote,  we  have 
to  guard  against  reading  modern  meanings  into  writ- 
ings produced  in  ages  whose  limitations  of  knowl- 
edge were  serious,  and  whose  temper  and  standpoint 
are  wholly  alien  to  our  own.  For  example,  shrewd 
as  are  some  of  the  guesses  made  by  Anaximander, 
we  find  him  describing  the  sun  as  "  a  ring  twenty- 
eight  times  the  size  of  the  earth,  like  a  cartwheel 
with  the  felloe  hollow  and  full  of  fire,  showing  the 
fire  at  a  certain  point,  as  if  through  the  nozzle  of  a 
pair  of  bellows."  And  if  he  made  some  approach 
to  truer  ideas  of  the  earth's  shape  as  "  convex  and 
round,"  the  world  of  his  day,  as  in  the  days  of 
Homer,  thought  of  it  as  flat  and  as  floating  on  the 
all-surrounding  water.  The  Ionian  philosophers 
lacked  not  insight,  but  the  scientific  method  of  start- 
ing with  working  hypotheses,  or  of  observation  be- 
fore theory,  was  as  yet  unborn. 

In  this  brief  survey  of  the  subject  there  will  be 
no  advantage  in  detailing  the  various  speculations 
which  followed  on  the  heels  of  those  of  Thales  and 


FROM    THALES    TO   LUCRETIUS.  g 

Anaximander,  since  these  varied  only  in  non-essen- 
tials; or,  like  that  of  Pythagoras  and  his  school, 
which  Zeller  regards  as  the  outcome  of  the  teachings 
of  Anaximander,  were  purely  abstract  and  fanciful. 
As  is  well  known,  the  Pythagoreans,  whose  philoso- 
phy was  ethical  as  well  as  cosmical,  held  that  all 
things  are  made  of  numbers,  each  of  which  they  be- 
lieved had  its  special  character  and  property.  A  be- 
lief in  such  symbols  as  entities  seems  impossible  to 
us,  but  its  existence  in  early  thought  is  conceivable 
when,  as  Aristotle  says,  they  were  "  not  separated 
from  the  objects  of  sense."  Even  in  the  present  day, 
among  the  eccentric  people  who  still  believe  in  the 
modern  sham  agnosticism,  known  as  theosophy, 
and  in  astrology,  we  find  the  delusion  that  numbers 
possess  inherent  magic  or  mystic  virtues.  So  far  as 
the  ancients  are  concerned,  "  consider,"  as  Mr.  Benn 
remarks  in  his  Greek  Philosophers  (vol.  i,  p.  12),  "  the 
lively  emotions  excited  at  a  time  when  multiplica- 
tion and  division,  squaring  and  cubing,  the  rule  of 
three,  the  construction  and  equivalence  of  figures,  with 
all  their  manifold  applications  to  industry,  com- 
merce, fine  arts,  and  tactics,  were  just  as  strange  and 
wonderful  as  electrical  phenomena  are  to  us  .  .  . 
and  we  shall  cease  to  wonder  that  a  mere  form  of 
thought,  a  lifeless  abstraction,  should  once  have  been 
regarded  as  the  solution  of  every  problem;  the  cause 
of  all  existence;  or  that  these  speculations  were  more 
than  once  revived  in  after  ages." 

Xenophanes    of    Colophon,    one    of    the    twelve 


lO  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION, 

Ionian  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  deserves,  however,  a 
passing  reference.  He,  with  Parmenides  and  Zeno, 
are  the  chief  representatives  of  the  Eleatic  school, 
so  named  from  the  city  in  southwestern  Italy  where 
a  Greek  colony  had  settled.  Then  tendency  of  that 
school  was  toward  metaphysical  theories.  He  was 
the  first  known  observer  to  detect  the  value  of  fos- 
sils as  evidences  of  the  action  of  water,  but  his  chief 
claim  to  notice  rests  on  the  fact  that,  passing  beyond 
the  purely  physical  speculations  of  the  Ionian  school, 
he  denied  the  idea  of  a  primary  substance,  and  theo- 
rized about  the  nature  and  actions  of  superhuman 
beings.  Living  at  a  time  "when  there  was  a  revival 
of  old  and  gross  superstitions  to  which  the  vulgar 
had  recourse  when  fears  of  invasions  arose,  he  dared 
to  attack  the  old  and  persistent  ideas  about  the  gods, 
as  in  the  following  sentences  from  the  fragments  of 
his  writings: 

"  Homer  and  Hesiod  have  ascribed  to  the  gods 
all  things  that  are  a  shame  and  a  disgrace  among 
men,  theft  and  adulteries  and  deception  of  one  an- 
other." 

''  There  never  was  nor  will  be  a  man  who  has 
clear  certainty  as  to  what  I  say  about  the  gods  and 
about  all  things;  for  even  if  he  does  chance  to  say 
what  is  right,  yet  he  himself  does  not  know  that  it 
is  so.    But  all  are  free  to  guess." 

"  Mortals  think  that  the  gods  were  born  as  they 
are,  and  have  senses  and  a  voice  and  body  like  their 
own.    So  the  Ethiopians  make  their  gods  black  and 


FROM    THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS,  n 

snub-nosed;  the  Thracians  give  theirs  red  hair  and 
blue  eyes." 

"  There  is  one  god,  the  greatest  among  gods  and 
men,  unHke  mortals  both  in  mind  and  body." 

Had  such  heresies  been  spoken  in  Athens,  where 
the  effects  of  a  religious  revival  were  still  in  force, 
the  "  secular  arm  "  of  the  archons  would  probably 
have  made  short  work  of  Xenophanes.  But  in  Elea, 
or  in  whatever  other  colony  he  may  have  lived,  "  the 
gods  were  left  to  take  care  of  themselves." 

Greater  than  the  philosophers  yet  named  is 
Heraclitus  of  Ephesus,  nicknamed  "  the  dark,"  from 
the  obscurity  of  his  style.  His  original  writings  have 
shared  the  fate  of  most  documents  of  antiquity,  and 
exist,  like  many  of  these,  only  in  fragments  pre- 
served in  the  works  of  other  authors.  Many  of 
his  aphorisms  are  indeed  dark  sayings,  but  those 
that  yield  their  meaning  are  full  of  truth  and  sug- 
gestiveness.     As  for  example: 

"  The  eyes  are  more  exact  witnesses  than  the 
ears." 

"  You  will  not  find  out  the  boundaries  of  soul  by 
travelling  in  any  direction." 

"  Man  is  kindled  and  put  out  like  a  light  in  the 
nighttime." 

"  Man's  character  is  his  fate." 

But  these  have  special  value  as  keys  to  his  phi- 
losophy: 

"  You  cannot  step  twice  into  the  same  rivers  ; 
for  fresh  waters  are  ever  flowing  in  upon  you." 


12  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

"Homer  was  wrong  in  saying:  'Would  that 
strife  might  perish  from  among  gods  and  men! '  He 
did  not  see  that  he  was  praying  for  the  destruction 
of  the  universe;  for,  if  his  prayer  were  heard,  all 
things  would  pass  away." 

Flux  or  movement,  says  Heraclitus,  is  the  all- 
pervading  law  of  things,  and  in  the  opposition  of 
forces,  by  which  things  are  kept  going,  there  is  un- 
derlying harmony.  Still  on  the  quest  after  the  pri- 
mary substance  whose  manifestations  are  so  various, 
he  found  it  in  Fire,  since  "  the  quantity  of  it  in  a 
flame  burning  steadily  appears  to  remain  the  same; 
the  flames  seems  to  be  what  we  call  a  '  thing.'  And 
yet  the  substance  of  it  is  continually  changing.  It 
is  always  passing  away  in  smoke,  and  its  place  is 
always  being  taken  by  fresh  matter  from  the  fuel 
that  feeds  it.  This  is  just  what  we  want.  If  we  re- 
gard the  world  as  an  '  ever-living  fire  ' — '  this  order, 
which  is  the  same  in  all  things,  and  which  no  one 
of  gods  or  men  has  made ' — we  can  understand  how 
fire  is  always  becoming  all  things,  while  all  things 
are  always  returning  to  it."  And  as  is  the  world,  so 
is  man,  made  up,  like  it,  both  soul  and  body,  of  the 
fire,  the  water,  and  the  earth.  We  are  and  are  not 
the  same  for  two  consecutive  moments;  "the  fire  in 
us  is  perpetually  becoming  water,  and  the  water 
earth,  but  as  the  opposite  process  goes  on  simul- 
taneously we  appear  to  remain  the  same." 

As  speculation  advanced,  it  became  more  and 
more  applied  to  details,  theories  of  the  beginnings 


FROM   THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS. 


n 


of  life  being  followed  by  theories  of  the  origin  of  its 
various  forms.  This  is  a  feature  of  the  philosophy 
of  Empedocles,  who  flourished  in  the  fifth  century 
B.  c.  The  advance  of  Persia  westward  had  led  to 
migrations  of  Greeks  to  the  south  of  Italy  and  Sicily, 
and  it  was  at  Agrigentum,  in  that  island,  that  Empe- 
docles was  born  about  490.  He  has  an  honoured 
place  among  the  earliest  who  supplanted  guesses 
about  the  world  by  inquiry  into  the  world  itself. 
Many  legends  are  told  of  his  magic  arts,  one  of 
which,  it  will  be  remembered,  Matthew  Arnold 
makes  an  occasion  of  some  fine  reflections  in  his 
poem  Empedocles  in  Etna.  The  philosopher  was 
said  to  have  brought  back  to  life  a  woman  who 
apparently  had  been  dead  for  thirty  days.  As  he 
ascends  the  mountain,  Pausanias  of  Gela,  with  an 
address  to  whom  the  poem  of  Empedocles  opens, 
would  fain  have  his  curiosity  slaked  as  to  this  and 
other  marvels  reported  of  him: 

Ask  not  the  latest  news  of  the  last  miracle, 

Ask  not  what  days  and  nights 

In  trance  Pantheia  lay, 

But  ask  how  thou  such  sights 

May'st  see  without  dismay  ; 

Ask  what  most  helps  when  known,  thou  son  of  Anchitus. 

His  speculations  about  things,  like  those  of  Par- 

menides  before  him  and  of  Lucretius  after  him,  are 

set  down  in  verse.     From  the  remains  of  his  Poem 

on  Nature  we  learn  that  he  conceived  "  the  four  roots 

of  all  things  "  to  be  Fire,  Air,  Earth,  and  Water. 

They  are  "  fools,  lacking  far-reaching  thoughts,  who 


14 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


deem  that  what  before  was  not  comes  into  being,  or 
that  aught  can  perish  and  be  utterly  destroyed." 
Therefore  the  "  roots  "  or  elements  are  eternal  and 
indestructible.  They  are  acted  upon  by  two  forces, 
which  are  also  material,  Love  and  Strife;  the  one 
a  uniting  agent,  the  other  a  disrupting  agent.  From 
the  four  roots,  thus  operated  upon,  arise  "  the  colours 
and  forms  "  of  living  things ;  trees  first,  both  male 
and  female,  then  fragmentary  parts  of  animals,  heads 
without  necks,  and  "  eyes  that  strayed  up  and  down 
in  want  of  a  forehead,"  which,  combined  together, 
produced  monstrous  forms.  These,  lacking  power 
to  propagate,  perished,  and  were  replaced  by  "whole- 
natured  "  but  sexless  ''  forms  "  which  "  arose  from 
the  earth,"  and  which,  as  Strife  gained  the  upper 
hand,  became  male  and  female.  Herein,  amidst 
much  fantastic  speculation,  would  appear  to  be  the 
germ  of  the  modern  theory  that  the  unadapted  be- 
come extinct,  and  that  only  the  adapted  survive. 
Nature  kills  ofif  her  failures  to  make  room  for  her 
successes. 

Anaxagoras,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  Empe- 
docles,  interests  us  because  he  was  the  first  philoso- 
pher to  repair  to  Athens,  and  the  first  sufferer  for 
truth's  sake  of  whom  we  have  record  in  Greek  an- 
nals. Because  he  taught  that  the  sun  was  a  red- 
hot  stone,  and  that  the  moon  had  plains  and  ravines 
in  it,  he  was  put  upon  his  trial,  and  but  for  the  in- 
fluence of  his  friend,  the  famous  Pericles,  might  have 
suffered  death.    Speculations,  however  bold  they  be, 


FROM   THALES   TO  LUCRETIUS. 


15 


pass  unheeded  till  they  collide  with  the  popular  creed, 
and  in  thus  attacking  the  gods,  attack  a  seemingly 
divinely  settled  order.  Athens  then,  and  long  after, 
while  indifferent  about  natural  science,  was,  under, 
the  influence  of  the  revival  referred  to  above,  actively 
hostile  to  free  thinking.  The  opinions  of  Anax- 
agoras  struck  at  the  existence  of  the  gods  and 
emptied  Olympus.  If  the  sky  was  but  an  air-filled 
space,  what  became  of  Zeus?  if  the  sun  was  only  a 
fiery  ball,  what  became  of  Apollo?  Mr.  Grote  says 
(History  of  Greece,  vol.  i,  p.  466)  that  "  in  the  view 
of  the  early  Greek,  the  description  of  the  sun,  as 
given  in  a  modern  astronomical  treatise,  would  have 
appeared  not  merely  absurd,  but  repulsive  and  im- 
pious; even  in  later  times,  Anaxagoras  and  other 
astronomers  incurred  the  charge  of  blasphemy  for 
dispersonifying  HeHos."  Of  Socrates,  who  was  him- 
self condemned  to  death  for  impiety  in  denying  old 
gods  and  introducing  news  ones,  the  same  authority 
writes :  "  Physics  and  astronomy,  in  his  opinion,  be- 
longed to  the  divine  class  of  phenomena,  in  which 
human  research  was  insane,  fruitless,  and  impious." 
So  Demos  and  his  "  betters  "  clung,  as  the  majority 
still  cling,  to  the  myths  of  their  forefathers.  They  re- 
paired to  the  oracles,  and  watched  for  the  will  of  the 
gods  in  signs  and  omens. 

In  his  philosophy  Anaxagoras  held  that  there 
was  a  portion  of  everything  in  everything,  and  that 
things  are  variously  mixed  in  infinite  numbers  of 
seeds,  each  after  its  kind.    From  these,  through  the 


1 6  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

action  of  an  external  cause,  called  Nous,  which  also 
is  material,  although  the  "  thinnest  of  all  things  and 
the  purest,"  and  "  has  power  over  all  things,"  there 
arose  plants  and  animals.     It  is  probable,  as  Pro- 
fessor Burnet  remarks,  ''  that  Anaxagoras  substituted 
Nous,  still  conceived  as  a  body,  for  the  Love  and 
Strife   of  Empedocles   simply  because   he   wished 
to  retain  the  old  Ionic  doctrine  of  a  substance  that 
*  knows '   all  things,   and  to   identify  this  with  the 
new  theory  of  a  substance  that  '  moves '  all  things." 
Thus  far  speculation  has  run  largely  on  the  ori- 
gin of  life  forms,  but  now  we  find  revival  of  specula- 
tion about  the  nature  of  things  generally,  and  the 
formulation  of  a  theory  which  links  Greek  cosmology 
with  ^arly  nineteenth-century  science  with  Dalton's 
Atomic  Theory.    Democritus  of  Abdera,  who  was 
born  about  460  b.  c,  has  the  credit  of  having  elab- 
orated an  atomic  theory,  but  probably  he  only  further 
developed  what  Leucippus  had  taught  before  him. 
Of  this  last-named  philosopher  nothing  whatever  is 
known;  indeed,  his  existence  has  been  doubted,  but 
it  counts  for  something  that  Aristotle  gives  him  the 
credit  of  the  discovery,  and  that  Theophrastus,  in 
the  first  book  of  his  Opinions,  wrote  of  Leucippus  as 
follows :  "  He  assumed  innumerable  and  ever-mov- 
ing elements,  namely,  the  atoms.    And  he  made  their 
forms  infinite  in  number,  since  there  was  no  reason 
why  they  should  be  of  one  kind  rather  than  another, 
and  because  he  saw  that  there  was  unceasing  becom- 
ing and  change  in  things.     He  held,  further,  that 


FROM    THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS. 


17 


what  is  is  no  more  real  than  what  is  not,  and  that 
both  are  aHke  causes  of  the  things  that  come  into 
being;  for  he  laid  down  that  the  substance  of  the 
atoms  was  compact  and  full,  and  he  called  them 
what  is,  while  they  moved  in  the  void  which  he  called 
what  is  not,  but  affirmed  to  be  just  as  real  as  what  is." 
Thus  did  "  he  answer  the  question  that  Thales  had 
been  the  first  to  ask."     ' 

Postponing  further  reference  to  this  theory  until 
the  great  name  of  Lucretius,  its  Roman  exponent,  is 
reached,  we  find  a  genuine  scientific  method  making 
its  first  start  in  the  person  of  Aristotle.  This  remark- 
able man,  the  founder  of  the  experimental  school, 
and  the  Father  of  Natural  History,  was  born  384 
B.  c.  at  Stagira  in  Macedonia.  In  his  eighteenth 
year  he  left  his  native  place  for  Athens,  where  he 
became  a  pupil  of  Plato.  Disappointed,  as  it  is 
thought,  at  not  succeeding  his  master  in  the  Acad- 
emy, he  removed  to  Mytilene  in'the  island  of  Lesbos, 
where  he  received  an  invitation  from  Philip  of  Mace- 
don  to  become  tutor  to  his  son,  the  famous  Alex- 
ander the  Great.  When  Alexander  went  on  his  ex- 
pedition to  Asia,  Aristotle  returned  to  Athens,  teach- 
ing in  the  "  school "  which  his  genius  raised  to  the 
first  rank.  There  he  wrote  the  greater  part  of  his 
works,  the  completion  of  some  of  which  was  stopped 
by  his  death  at  Chalcis  in  322.  The  range  of  his 
studies  was  boundless,  but  in  this  brief  notice  we 
must  limit  our  survey — and  the  more  so  because  Aris- 
totle's speculations  outside  natural  history  abound  in 


1 8  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

errors — to  his  pioneer  work  in  organic  evolution. 
Here,  in  the  one  possible  method  of  reaching  the 
truth,  theory  follows  observation.  Stagira  lay  on  the 
Strymonic  gulf,  and  a  boyhood  spent  by  the  seashore 
gave  Aristotle  ample  opportunity  for  noting  the  vari- 
ations, and  withal  gradations,  between  marine  plants 
and  animals,  among  which  last-named  it  should  be 
noted  as  proof  of  his  insight  that  he  was  keen  enough 
to  include  sponges.  Here  was  laid  the  foundation 
of  a  classification  of  life-forms  on  which  all  corre- 
sponding attempts  were  based.  Then,  he  saw,  as 
none  other  before  him  had  seen,  and  as  none  after 
him  saw  for  centuries,  the  force  of  heredity,  that 
still  unsolved  problem  of  biology.  Speaking  broadly 
of  his  teaching,  the  details  of  which  would  fill  pages, 
its  main  features  are  (i)  His  insistence  on  observa- 
tion. In  his  History  of  Animals  he  says  "  we  must 
not  accept  a  general  principle  from  logic  only,  but 
must  prove  its  application  to  each  fact.  For  it  is 
in  facts  that  we  must  seek  general  principles,  and 
these  must  always  accord  with  facts.  Experience 
furnishes  the  particular  facts  from  which  induction 
is  the  pathway  to  general  laws."  (2)  His  rejection 
of  chance  and  assertion  of  law,  not,  following  a 
common  error,  of  law  personified  as  cause,  but  as 
the  term  by  which  we  express  the  fact  that  certain 
phenomena  always  occur  in  a  certain  order.  In  his 
Physics  Aristotle  says  that  "  Jupiter  rains  not  that 
corn  may  be  increased,  but  from  necessity.  Simi- 
larly, if  some  one's  corn  is  destroyed  by  rain,  it  does 


FROM    THALES    TO   LUCRETIUS. 


19 


not  rain  for  this  purpose,  but  as  an  accidental  cir- 
cumstance. It  does  not  appear  to  be  from  fortune 
or  chance  that  it  frequently  rains  in  winter,  but  from 
necessity."  (3)  On  the  question  of  the  origin  of  life- 
forms  he  was  nearest  of  all  to  its  modem  solution, 
setting  forth  the  necessity  "  that  germs  should  have 
been  first  produced,  and  not  immediately  animals; 
and  that  soft  mass  which  first  subsisted  was  the  germ. 
In  plants,  also,  there  is  purpose,  but  it  is  less  distinct; 
and  this  shows  that  plants  were  produced  in  the  same 
manner  as  animals,  not  by  chance,  as  by  the  union 
of  olives  with  grape  vines.  Similarly,  it  may  be 
argued,  that  there  should  be  an  accidental  genera- 
tion of  the  germs  of  things,  but  he  who  asserts  this 
subverts  Nature  herself,  for  Nature  produces  those 
things  which,  being  continually  moved  by  a  certain 
principle  contained  in  themselves,  arrive  at  a  cer- 
tain end."  In  the  eagerness  of  theologians  to  dis- 
cover proof  of  a  belief  in  one  God  among  the  old  phi- 
losophers, the  references  made  by  Aristotle  to  a 
*'  perfecting  principle,"  an  "  efficient  cause,"  a  "  prime 
mover,"  and  so  forth,  have  been  too  readily  construed 
as  denoting  a  monotheistic  creed  which,  reminding 
us  of  the  "  one  god  "  of  Xenophanes,  is  also  akin  to 
the  Personal  God  of  Christianity.  "  The  Stagirite," 
as  Mr.  Benn  remarks  (Greek  Philosophers,  vol.  i, 
p.  312),  "  agrees  with  Catholic  theism,  and  he  agrees 
with  the  First  Article  of  the  English  Church,  though 
not  with  the  Pentateuch,  in  saying  that  God  is  with- 
out parts  or  passions,  but  there  his  agreement  ceases. 


20  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

Excluding  such  a  thing  as  divine  interference  with 
all  Nature,  his  theology,  of  course,  excludes  the  pos- 
sibility of  revelation,  inspiration,  miracles,  and 
grace."  He  is  a  being  who  does  not  interest  himself 
in  human  affairs. 

But,  differ  as  the  commentators  may  as  to  Aris- 
totle's meaning,  his  assumed  place  in  the  orthodox 
line  led,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter,  to  the  acceptance 
of  his  philosophy  by  Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo, 
in  the  fourth  century,  and  by  other  Fathers  of  the 
Church,  so  that  the  mediaeval  theories  of  the  Bible, 
blended  with  Aristotle,  represent  the  sum  of  knowl- 
edge held  as  sufficient  until  the  discoveries  of  Co- 
pernicus in  the  sixteenth  century  upset  the  Ptolemaic 
theory  with  its  fixed  earth  and  system  of  cycles  and 
epicycles  in  which  the  heavenly  bodies  moved.  He 
thereby  upset  very  much  besides.  Like  Anaximan- 
der  and  others,  Aristotle  beheved  in  spontaneous 
generation,  although  only  in  the  case  of  certain  ani- 
mals, as  of  eels  from  the  mud  of  ponds,  and  of  insects 
from  putrid  matter.  However,  in  this,  both  Augus- 
tine and  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  many  men  of  science 
down  to  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
followed  him.  For  example.  Van  Helmont,  an  ex- 
perimental chemist  of  that  period,  gave  a  recipe  for 
making  fleas;  and  another  scholar  showed  himself 
on  a  level  with  the  unlettered  rustics  of  to-day,  who 
believe  that  eels  are  produced  from  horse  hairs 
thrown  into  a  pond. 

Of  deeper  interest,  as  marking  Aristotle's  pre- 


FROM   THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS.  2 1 

vision,  is  his  anticipation  of  what  is  known  as  Epi- 
genesis,  or  the  theory  of  the  development  of  the 
germ  into  the  adult  form  among  the  higher  indi- 
viduals through  the  union  of  the  fertilizing  powers 
of  the  male  and  female  organs.  This  theory,  which 
was  proved  by  the  researches  of  Harvey,  the  dis- 
coverer of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  and  is  ac- 
cepted by  all  biologists  to-day,  was  opposed  by  Mal- 
pighi,  an  Itahan  physician,  born  in  1628,  the  year 
in  which  Harvey  published  his  great  discovery,  and 
by  other  prominent  men  of  science  down  to  the  last 
century.  Malpighi  and  his  school  contended  that 
the  perfect  animal  is  already  "  preformed "  in  the 
germ;  for  example,  the  hen's  ^^^,  before  fecunda- 
tion, containing  an  excessively  minute,  but  com- 
plete, chick.  It  therefore  followed  that  in  any  germ 
the  germs  of  all  subsequent  offspring  must  be  con- 
tained, and  in  the  apphcation  of  this  "box-within- 
box  "  theory  its  defenders  even  computed  the  num- 
ber of  human  germs  concentrated  in  the  ovary  of 
mother  Eve,  estimating  these  at  two  hundred  thou- 
sand millions! 

When  the  ''  preformation  "  theory  was  revived  by 
Bonnet  and  others  in  the  eighteenth  century,  Eras- 
mus Darwin,  grandfather  of  Charles  Darwin,  passed 
the  following  shrewd  criticism  on  it :  ''  Many  in- 
genious philosophers  have  found  so  great  difHculty 
in  conceiving  the  manner  of  reproduction  in  animals 
that  they  have  supposed  all  the  numerous  progeny 
to  have  existed  in  miniature  in  the  animal  originally 


22  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

created.  This  idea,  besides  its  being  unsupported 
by  any  analogy  we  are  acquainted  with,  ascribes  a 
greater  continuity  to  organized  matter  than  we  can 
readily  admit.  These  embryons  .  .  .  must  possess 
a  greater  degree  of  minuteness  than  that  which  was 
ascribed  to  the  devils  who  tempted  St.  Anthony,  of 
whom  twenty  thousand  were  said  to  have  been  able 
to  dance  a  saraband  on  the  point  of  a  needle  without 
the  least  incommoding  each  other." 

Although  no  theistic  element  could  be  extracted 
by  the  theologians  of  the  early  Christian  Church 
from  the  systems  of  Empedocles  and  Democritus, 
thereby  securing  them  a  share  in  the  influence  exer- 
cised by  the  great  Stagirite,  they  were  formative 
powers  in  Greek  philosophy,  and,  moreover,  have 
''  come  by  their  own  "  in  these  latter  days.  Their 
chief  representative  in  what  is  known  as  the  Post- 
Aristotelian  period  is  Epicurus,  who  was  born  at 
Samos,  342  B.  c.  As  with  Zeno,  the  founder  of  the 
Stoic  school,  his  teaching  has  been  perverted,  so 
that  his  name  has  become  loosely  identified  with 
indulgence  in  gross  and  sensual  living.  He  saw 
in  pleasure  the  highest  happiness,  and  therefore  ad- 
vocated the  pursuit  of  pleasure  to  attain  happiness, 
but  he  did  not  thereby  mean  the  pursuit  of  the  un- 
worthy. Rather  did  he  counsel  the  following  after 
pure,  high,  and  noble  aims,  whereby  alone  a  man 
could  have  peace  of  mind.  It  is  not  hard  to  see  that 
in  the  minds  of  men  of  low  ideals  the  tendency  to- 
wards passivity  which  lurked  in  such  teaching  would 


FROM    THALES    TO   LUCRETIUS. 


23 


aid  their  sliding  into  the  pursuit  of  mere  animal  en- 
joyment; hence  the  gross  and  limited  association  of 
t^e  term  Epicurean.  Epicurus  accepted  the  theory 
of  Leucippus,  and  applied  it  all  round.  The  faineant 
gods,  who  dwell  serenely  indifferent  to  human  af- 
fairs, and  about  whom  men  should  therefore  have  no 
dread;  all  things,  whether  dead  or  living,  even  the 
ideas  that  enter  the  mind;  are  alike  composed  of 
atoms.  He  also  accepted  the  theory  broached  by 
Empedocles  as  to  the  survival  of  fit  and  capable 
forms  after  life  had  arrived  at  these  through  the 
processes  of  spontaneous  generation  and  the  pro- 
duction of  monstrosities.  Adopting  the  physical 
speculations  of  these  forerunners,  he  made  them  the 
vehicle  of  didactic  and  ethical  philosophies  which  in- 
spired the  production  of  the  wonderful  poem  of 
Lucretius. 

Between  this  great  Roman  and  Epicurus — a  pe- 
riod of  some  two  centuries — there  is  no  name  of  suf- 
ficient prominence  to  warrant  attention.  The  decline 
of  Greece  had  culminated  in  her  conquest  by  the 
semi-barbarian  Mummius,  and  in  her  consequent  ad- 
dition to  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire.  What 
life  lingered  in  her  philosophy  within  her  own  bor- 
ders expired  with  the  loss  of  freedom,  and  the  work 
done  by  the  Pioneers  of  Evolution  in  Greece  was  to 
be  resumed  elsewhere.  In  the  few  years  of  the  pre- 
Christian  period  that  remained  the  teaching  of  Em- 
pedocles, and  of  Epicurus  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
atomic  theory,  was  revived  by  Lucretius  in  his  De 


24  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

Rerum  Natura.  Of  that  remarkable  man  but  little 
is  recorded,  and  the  record  is  untrustworthy.  He 
was  probably  born  99  b.  c,  and  died — by  his  own 
hand,  Jerome  says,  but  of  this  there  is  no  proof — in 
his  forty-fourth  year.  It  is  difficult,  taking  up  his 
wonderful  poem,  to  resist  the  temptation  to  make 
copious  extracts  from  it,  since,  even  through  the 
vehicle  of  Mr.  Munro's  exquisite  translation,  it  is 
probably  little  known  to  the  general  reader  in  these 
evil  days  of  snippety  literature.  But  the  temptation 
must  be  resisted,  save  in  moderate  degree. 

With  the  dignity  which  his  high  mission  inspires, 
Lucretius  appeals  to  us  in  the  threefold  character  of 
teacher,  reformer,  and  poet.  "  First,  by  reason  of 
the  greatness  of  my  argument,  and  because  I  set  the 
mind  free  from  the  close-drawn  bonds  of  supersti- 
tion; and  next  because,  on  so  dark  a  theme,  I  com- 
pose such  lucid  verse,  touching  every  point  with  the 
grace  of  poesy."  As  a  teacher  he  expounds  the  doc- 
trines of  Epicurus  concerning  life  and  nature;  as  a 
reformer  he  attacks  superstition;  as  a  poet  he  in- 
forms both  the  atomic  philosophy  and  its  moral  ap- 
plication with  harmonious  and  beautiful  verse  swayed 
by  a  fervour  that  is  akin  to  religious  emotion. 

Discussing  at  the  outset  various  theories  of  ori- 
gins, and  dismissing  these,  notably  that  which  asserts 
that  things  came  from  nothing — "  for  if  so,  any  kind 
might  be  born  of  anything,  nothing  would  require 
seed,"  Lucretius  proceeds  to  expound  the  teaching 
of  Leucippus  and  other  atomists  as  to  the  constitu- 


FROM    THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS, 


25 


tion  of  things  by  particles  of  matter  ruled  in  their 
movements  by  unvarying  laws.  This  theory  he 
works  all  round,  explaining  the  processes  by  which 
the  atoms  unite  to  carry  on  the  birth,  growth,  and 
decay  of  things,  the  variety  of  which  is  due  to  variety 
of  form  of  the  atoms  and  to  differences  in  modes 
of  their  combination;  the  combinations  being  deter- 
mined by  the  affinities  or  properties  of  the  atoms 
themselves,  "  since  it  is  absolutely  decreed  what  each 
thing  can  and  what  it  cannot  do  by  the  conditions  of 
Nature."  Change  is  the  law  of  the  universe;  what 
is,  will  perish,  but  only  to  reappear  in  another  form. 
Death  is  "  the  only  immortal " ;  and  it  is  that  and 
what  may  follow  it  which  are  the  chief  tormentors 
of  men.  ''  This  terror  of  the  soul,  therefore,  and  this 
darkness,  must  be  dispelled,  not  by  the  rays  of  the 
sun  or  the  bright  shafts  of  day,  but  by  the  outward 
aspect  and  harmonious  plan  of  Nature."  Lucretius 
explains  that  the  soul,  which  he  places  in  the  centre 
of  the  breast,  is  also  formed  of  very  minute  atoms  of 
heat,  wind,  calm  air,  and  a  finer  essence,  the  pro- 
portions of  which  determine  the  character  of  both 
men  and  animals.  It  dies  with  the  body,  in  support 
of  which  statement  Lucretius  advances  seventeen 
arguments,  so  determined  is  he  to  "  deliver  those 
who  through  fear  of  death  are  all  their  lifetime  sub- 
ject to  bondage." 

These  themes  fill  the  first  three  books.     In  the 
fourth   he   grapples   with   the   mental   problems   of 
sensation  and  conception,  and  explains  the  origin  of 
3 


26  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION.     . 

belief  in  immortality  as  due  to  ghosts  and  appari- 
tions which  appear  in  dreams.  ''  When  sleep  has 
prostrated  the  body,  for  no  other  reason  does  the 
mind's  intelligence  wake,  except  because  the  very 
same  images  provoke  our  minds  which  provoke  them 
when  we  are  awake,  and  to  such  a  degree  that  we 
seem  without  a  doubt  to  perceive  him  whom  life  has 
left,  and  death  and  earth  gotten  hold  of.  This  Na- 
ture constrains  to  come  to  pass  because  all  the  senses 
of  the  body  are  then  hampered  and  at  rest  through- 
out the  limbs,  and  cannot  refute  the  unreal  by  real 
things." 

In  the  fifth  book  Lucretius  deals  with  origins — 
of  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  earth  (which  he  held  to  be 
flat,  denying  the  existence  of  the  antipodes);  of  Hfe 
and  its  development;  and  of  civilization.  In  all  this 
he  excludes  design,  explaining  everything  as  pro- 
duced and  maintained  by  natural  agents,  "the  masses, 
suddenly  brought  together,  became  the  rudiments  of 
earth,  sea,  and  heaven,  and  the  race  of  living  things." 
He  believed  in  the  successive  appearance  of  plants 
and  animals,  but  in  their  arising  separately  and  di- 
rectly out  of  the  earth,  "  under  the  influence  of  rain 
and  the  heat  of  the  sun,"  thus  repeating  the  old 
speculations  of  the  emergence  of  life  from  sHme, 
"  wherefore  the  earth  with  good  title  has  gotten  and 
keeps  the  name  of  mother."  He  did  not  adopt  Em- 
pedocles's  theory  of  the  "  four  roots  of  all  things," 
and  he  will  have  none  of  the  monsters — the  hippo- 
griffs,  chimeras,  and  centaurs — which  form  a  part  of 


FROM    THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS. 


27 


the  scheme  of  that  philosopher.  These,  he  says, 
"  have  never  existed,"  thus  showing  himself  far  in 
advance  of  ages  when  unicorns,  dragons,  and  such- 
like fabled  beasts  were  seriously  believed  to  exist. 
In  one  respect,  more  discerning  than  Aristotle,  he 
accepts  the  doctrine  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  as 
taught  by  the  sage  of  Agrigentum.  For  he  argues 
that  since  upon  "  the  increase  of  some  Nature  set  a 
ban,  so  that  they  could  not  reach  the  coveted  flower 
of  age,  nor  find  food,  nor  be  united  in  marriage," 
..."  many  races  of  living  things  have  died  out,  and 
been  unable  to  beget  and  continue  their  breed." 
Lucretius  speaks  of  Empedocles  in  terms  scarcely 
less  exaggerated  than  those  which  he  applied  to  Epi- 
curus. The  latter  is  "  a  god  "  who  first  found  out 
that  plan  of  life  which  is  now  termed  wisdom,  and 
who  by  tried  skill  rescued  life  from  such  great  bil- 
lows and  such  thick  darkness  and  moored  it  in  so 
perfect  a  calm  and  in  so  brilliant  a  light,  ...  he 
cleared  men's  breasts  with  truth-telling  precepts,  and 
fixed  a  limit  to  lust  and  fear,  and  explained  what 
was  the  chief  good  which  we  all  strive  to  reach."  As 
to  Empedocles,  "  that  great  country  (Sicily)  seems 
to  have  held  within  it  nothing  more  glorious  than 
this  man,  nothing  more  holy,  marvellous,  and  dear. 
The  verses,  too,  of  this  godHke  genius  cry  with  a 
loud  voice,  and  make  known  his  great  discoveries, 
so  that  he  seems  scarcely  born  of  a  mortal  stock." 
Continuing  his  speculations  on  the  development 
of  living  things,  Lucretius  strikes  out  in  bolder  and 


28  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

original  vein.  The  past  history  of  man,  he  says,  lies 
in  no  heroic  or  golden  age,  but  in  one  of  struggle 
,  .^^^>•^^out  of  savagery.  Only  when  ''  children,  by  their 
^  ^  ly  J  coaxing  ways,  easily  broke  down  the  proud  temper 
r^i  [i^\  of  their  fathers,"  did  there  arise  the  family  ties  out 
^  '^  >  of  which  the  wider  social  bond  has  grown,  and  soft- 
y^  ening  and  civilizing  agencies  begin  their  fair  offices. 

In  his  battle  for  food  and  shelter,  "  man's  first  arms 
were  hands,  nails  and  teeth  and  stones  and  boughs 
broken  off  from  the  forests,  and  flame  and  fire,  as 
soon  as  they  had  become  known.  Afterward  the 
force  of  iron  and  copper  was  discovered,  and  the  use 
of  copper  was  known  before  that  of  iron,  as  its  nature 
is  easier  to  work,  and  it  is  found  in  greater  quantity. 
With  copper  they  would  labour  the  soil  of  the  earth 
and  stir  up  the  billows  of  war.  .  .  .  Then  by  slow 
steps  the  sword  of  iron  gained  ground  and  the  make 
of  the  copper  sickle  became  a  byword,  and  with  iron 
they  began  to  plough  through  the  earth's  soil,  and 
the  struggles  of  wavering  man  were  rendered  equal." 
As  to  language,  "  Nature  impelled  them  to  utter  the 
various  sounds  of  the  tongue,  and  use  struck  out  the 
names  of  things."  Thus  does  Lucretius  point  the 
road  along  which  physical  and  mental  evolution  have 
since  travelled,  and  make  the  whole  story  subordi- 
nate to  the  high  purpose  of  his  poem  in  deliverance 
of  the  beings  whose  career  he  thus  traces  from  super- 
stition. Man  ''  seeing  the  system  of  heaven  and  the 
different  seasons  of  the  years  could  not  find  out  by 
what  causes  this  was  done,  and  sought  refuge  in 


FROM   THALES   TO  LUCRETIUS, 


29 


handing  over  all  things  to  the  gods  and  supposing 
all  things  to  be  guided  by  their  nod."  Then,  in  the 
sixth  and  last  book,  the  completion  of  which  would 
seem  to  have  been  arrested  by  his  death,  Lucretius 
explains  the  "  law  of  winds  and  storms,"  of  earth- 
quakes and  volcanic  outbursts,  which  men  "  foolishly 
lay  to  the  charge  of  the  gods,"  who  thereby  make 
known  their  anger. 

So,  loath  to  suffer  mute, 
We,  peopling  the  void  air, 
Make  Gods  to  whom  to  impute 
The  ills  we  ought  to  bear  ; 
With  God  and  Fate  to  rail  at,  suffering  easily. 

And  what  a  motley  crowd  of  gods  they  were  on 
whose  caprice  or  indifference  he  pours  his  vials  of 
anger  and  contempt!  The  tolerant  pantheon  of 
Rome  gave  welcome  to  any  foreign  deity  with  re- 
spectable credentials;  to  Cybele,  the  Great  Mother, 
imported  in  the  shape  of  a  rough-hewn  stone  with 
pomp  and  rejoicings  from  Phrygia  204  b.  c;  to  Isis, 
welcomed  from  Egypt^  to  Herakles,  Demeter,  As- 
klepios,  and  many  another  god  from  Greece.  But 
these  were  dismissed  from  a  man's  thought  when  the 
prayer  or  sacrifice  to  them  had  been  offered  at  the 
due  season.  They  had  less  influence,  on  the  Roman's 
life  than  the  crowd  of  native  godlings  who  were 
thinly  disguised  fetiches,  and  who  controlled  every 
action  of  the  day.  For  the  minor  gods  survive  the 
changes  in  the  pantheon  of  every  race.  Of  the  Greek 
peasant  of  to-day  Mr.  Rennel  Rodd  testifies,  in  his 


30 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Custom  and  Lore  of  Modern  Greece,  that  much  as 
he  would  shudder  at  the  accusation  of  any  taint  of 
paganism,  the  ruling  of  the  Fates  is  more  immedi- 
ately real  to  him  than  divine  omnipotence.  Mr. 
Tozer  confirms  this  in  his  Highlands  of  Turkey.  He. 
says :  "  It  is  rather  the  minor  deities  and  those  as- 
sociated with  man's  ordinary  life  that  have  escaped 
the  brunt  of  the  storm,  and  returned  to  live  in  a  dim 
twilight  of  popular  belief."  In  India,  Sir  Alfred 
Lyall  tells  us  that,  ''  even  the  supreme  triad  of  Hindu 
allegory,  which  represents  the  almighty  powers  of 
creation,  preservation,  and  destruction,  have  long 
ceased  to  preside  actively  over  any  such  correspond- 
ing distribution  of  functions."  Like  limited  mon- 
archs,  they  reign,  but  do  not  govern.  They  are 
superseded  by  the  ever-increasing  crowd  of  godlings 
whose  influence  is  personal  and  special,  as  shown  by 
Mr.  Crooke  in  his  instructive  Introduction  to  the 
Popular  Religion  and  Folk-lore  of  Northern  India. 
The  old  Roman  catalogue  of  spiritual  beings, 
abstractions  as  they  were,  who  guarded  life  in  minute 
detail,  is  a  long  one.  From  the  indigitamenta,  as 
such  lists  are  called,  we  learn  that  no  less  than  forty- 
three  were  concerned  with  the  actions  of  a  child. 
When  the  farmer  asked  Mother  Earth  for  a  good 
harvest,  the  prayer  would  not  avail  unless  he  also 
invoked  "  the  spirit  of  breaking  up  the  land  and  the 
spirit  of  ploughing  it  crosswise ;  the  spirit  of  furrow- 
ing and  the  spirit  of  ploughing  in  the  seed;  and  the 
spirit  of  harrowing;  the  spirit  of  weeding  and  the 


FROM    THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS. 


31 


spirit  of  reaping;  the  spirit  of  carrying  corn  to  the 
barn;  and  the  spirit  of  bringing  it  out  again."  The 
country,  moreover,  swarmed  with  Chaldsean  astrolo- 
gers and  casters  of  nativities;  with  Etruscan  harus- 
pices  full  of  "  childish  lightning-lore,"  who  foretold 
events  from  the  entrails  of  sacrificed  animals;  while 
in  competition  with  these  there  was  the  State-sup- 
ported college  of  augurs  to  divine  the  will  of  the 
gods  by  the  cries  and  direction  of  the  flight  of  birds. 
Well  might  the  satirist  of  such  a  time  say  that  the 
"  place  was  so  densely  populated  with  gods  as  to 
leave  hardly  room  for  the  men." 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  justification  for  including 
Lucretius  among  the  Pioneers  of  Evolution  lies  in 
his  two  signal  and  momentous  contributions  to  the 
science  of  man;  namely,  the  primitive  savagery  of 
the  human  race,  and  the  origin  of  the  beHef  in  a 
soul  and  a  future  life.  Concerning  the  first,  an- 
thropological research,  in  its  vast  accumulation  of 
materials  during  the  last  sixty  years,  has  done  little 
more  than  fill  in  the  outline  which  the  insight  of 
Lucretius  enabled  him  to  sketch.  As  to  the  second, 
he  anticipates,  well-nigh  in  detail,  the  ghost- theory 
of  the  origin  of  belief  in  spirits  generally  which  Her- 
bert Spencer  and  Dr.  Tylor,  following  the  Hues  laid 
down  by  Hume  and  Turgot  (see  p.  255),  have 
formulated  and  sustained  by  an  enormous  mass  of 
evidence.  The  credit  thus  due  to  Lucretius  for  the 
original  ideas  in  his  majestic  poem — Greek  in  con- 
ception   and    Roman    in    execution — has    been    ob- 


32 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


scured  in  the  general  eclipse  which  that  poem  suf- 
fered for  centuries  through  its  anti-theological  spirit. 
Grinding  at  the  same  philosophical  mill,  Aristotle, 
because  of  the  theism  assumed  to  be  involved  in  his 
"  perfecting  principle,"  was  cited  as  ''  a  pillar  of  the 
faith  "  by  the  Fathers  and  Schoolmen ;  while  Lucre- 
tius, because  of  his  denial  of  design,  was  **  anathema 
maranatha."  Only  in  these  days,  when  the  far-reach- 
ing effects  of  the  theory  of  evolution,  supported  by 
observation  in  every  branch  of  inquiry,  are  apparent, 
are  the  merits  of  Lucretius  as  an  original  seer,  more 
than  as  an  expounder  of  the  teachings  of  Empedocles 
and  Epicurus,  made  clear. 

Standing  well-nigh  on  the  threshold  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  we  may  pause  to  ask  what  is  the  sum  of 
the  speculation  into  the  causes  and  nature  of  things 
which,  begun  in  Ionia  (with  impulse  more  or  less 
slight  from  the  East,  in  the  sixth  century  before 
Christ),  by  Thales,  ceased,  for  many  centuries,  in  the 
poem  of  Lucretius,  thus  covering  an  active  period 
of  about  five  hundred  years.  The  caution  not  to  see 
in  these  speculations  more  than  an  approximate  ap- 
proach to  modern  theories  must  be  kept  in  mind. 

1.  There  is  a  primary  substance  which  abides 
amidst  the  general  flux  of  things. 

All  modern  research  tends  to  show  that  the  various 
combinations  of  matter  are  formed  of  some  prima  ma- 
teria.   But  its  ultimate  nature  remains  unknown. 

2.  Out  of  nothing  comes  nothing. 


FROM   THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS. 


33 


Modern  science  knows  nothing  of  a  beginning,  and, 
moreover,  holds  it  to  be  unthinkable.  In  this  it  stands 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  theological  dogma  that  God 
created  the  universe  out  of  nothing;  a  dogma  still 
accepted  by  the  majority  of  Protestants  and  binding  on 
Roman  Catholics.  For  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  thereon,  as  expressed  in  the  Canons  of  the 
Vatican  Council,  is  as  follows:  "If  any  one  confesses 
not  that  the  world  and  all  things  which  are  contained 
in  it,  both  spiritual  and  mental,  have  been,  in  their 
zvhole  substance,  produced  by  God  out  of  nothing;  or 
shall  say  that  God  created,  not  by  His  free  will  from 
all  necessity,  but  by  a  necessity  equal  to  the  necessity 
whereby  He  loves  Himself,  or  shall  deny  that  the 
world  was  made  for  the  glory  of  God:  let  him  be 
anathema." 

3.  The  primary  substance  is  indestructible. 

The  modern  doctrine  of  the  Conservation  of  Energy 
teaches  that  both  matter  and  motion  can  neither  be  cre- 
ated nor  destroyed. 

4.  The  universe  is  made  up  of  indivisible  particles 
called  atoms,  whose  manifold  combinations,  ruled 
by  unalterable  affinities,  result  in  the  variety  of 
things. 

With  modifications  based  on  chemical  as  well  as 
mechanical  changes  among  the  atoms,  this  theory  of 
Leucippus  and  Democritus  is  confirmed.  {But  recent 
experiments  and  discoveries  show  that  reconstruction 
of  chemical  theories  as. to  the  properties  of  the  atom  may 
happen.) 


34  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

5.  Change  is  the  law  of  things,  and  is  brought 
about  by  the  play  of  opposing  forces. 

Modern  science  explains  the  changes  in  phenomena 
as  due  to  the  antagonism  of  repelling  and  attracting 
modes  of  motion;  when  the  latter  overcome  the  former^ 
eqidlibriiim  will  be  reached,  and  the  present  state  of 
things  will  come  to  an  end. 

6.  Water  is  a  necessary  condition  of  Hfe. 
Therefore  life  had  its  beginnings  in  water;  a  theory 

wholly  indorsed  by  modern  biology. 

7.  Life  arose  out  of  non-living  matter. 
Although  modern  biology  leaves  the  origin  of  life 

as  an  insoluble  problem,  it  supports  the  theory  of 
fundamental  continuity  between  the  inorganic  and  the 
organic. 

8.  Plants  came  before  animals:  the  higher  organ- 
isms, are  of  separate  sex,  and  appeared  subsequent 
to  the  lower. 

Generally  confirmed  by  modern  biology,  but  with 
qualification  as  to  the  undefined  borderland  betzveen 
the  lowest  plants  and  the  lowest  animals.  And,  of 
course,  it  recognises  a  continuity  in  the  order  and 
succession  of  life  which  was  not  grasped  by  the  Greeks. 
Aristotle  and  others  before  him  believed  that  some  of 
the  higher  forms  sprang  from  slimy  matter  direct. 

9.  Adverse  conditions  cause  the  extinction  of 
some  organisms,  thus  leaving  room  for  those  better 
fitted. 

Herein  lay  the  crude  germ  of  the  modern  doctrine 
of  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest." 


FROM    THALES    TO  LUCRETIUS. 


35 


10.  Man  was  the  last  to  appear,  and  his  primi- 
tive state  was  one  of  savagery.  His  first  tools  and 
weapons  were  of  stone;  then,  after  the  discovery  of 
metals,  of  copper;  and,  following  that,  of  iron.  His 
body  and  soul  are  alike  compounded  of  atoms,  and 
the  soul  is  extinguished  at  death. 

The  science  of  Prehistoric  Archceology  confirms  the 
theory  of  man's  slow  passage  from  barbarism  to  civili- 
zation; and  the  science  of  Comparative  Psychology  de- 
clares that  the  evidence  of  his  immortality  is  neither 
stronger  nor  weaker  than  the  evidence  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  lower  animals. 

Such,  in  very  broad  outline,  is  the  legacy  of  sug- 
gestive theories  bequeathed  by  the  Ionian  school  and 
its  successors,  theories  which  fell  into  the  rear  when 
Athens  became  a  centre  of  intellectual  life  in  which 
discussion  passed  from  the  physical  to  those  ethical 
problems  which  lie  outside  the  range  of  this  survey. 
Although  Aristotle,  by  his  prolonged  and  careful 
observations,  forms  a  conspicuous  exception,  the 
fact  abides  that  insight,  rather  than  experiment,  ruled 
Greek  speculation,  the  fantastic  guesses  of  parts  of 
which  themselves  evidence  the  survival  of  the  crude 
and  false  ideas  about  earth  and  sky  long  prevailing. 
The  more  wonderful  is  it,  therefore,  that  so  much 
therein  points  the  way  along  which  inquiry  travelled 
after  its  subsequent  long  arrest;  and  the  more  ap- 
parent is  it  that  nothing  in  science  or  art,  and  but 
little  in  theological  speculations,  at  least  among  us 


36 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Westerns,  can  be  understood  without  reference  to 
Greece. 

Table. 


Name. 


Thales. 


Anaximender. 

Anaximenes. 
Pythagoras. 


Xenophanes. 

Heraclitus. 

Empedocles. 


Anaxagoras. 

Leucippus 
Democritus. 

Aristotle. 


Epicurus. 
Lucretius. 


Miletus 
(Ionia). 


Satnos  (near 
the  Ionian 
coast). 


Approxi- 
mate date 


600 


500 
500 


Speciality. 


Cosmological 
Theoryasto  •  ,,.  . 
the  Primary  i^W^t^^- 
Substance 


Colophon 

500 

(Ionia). 

Ephesus 

500 

(Ionia). 

Agrigentum 

450 

(Sicily). 

Clazomenae 

450 

(Ionia). 

Abdera 

460 

(Thrace). 

Stagira 

350 

(Macedo- 

nia). 

Samos. 

300 

Rome. 

50 

the      Bound- 
less. 
Air. 
Numbers : 

"  a  Cosmos  built 
up  of  geomet- 
rical figures," 
or  (Grote,  Pla- 
to, i,  12)  "gen- 
erated  out  of 
number." 

Founder  of  the 
Eleatic  school. 

Fire. 

Fire,  Air,  Earth, 
and  Water : 
ruled  by  Love 
and  Strife. 

Nous. 


Formulators   of  the   Atomic 

Theory. 
Naturalist. 


Expounder  of  the  Atomic 
Theory  and  Ethical  Philos- 
opher. 

Interpreter  of  Epicurus  and 
Empedocles  :  the  first  An- 
thropologist. 


FART  II. 

THE   ARREST    OF   INQUIRY. 

A.  D.  50-A.  D.  400. 

I.  From   the   Early  Christian  Feriod  to   the    Time  of 

Aus'ustine, 


*^ 


"  A  revealed  dogma  is  always  opposed  to  the  free  research  that  may 
contradict  it.  The  result  of  science  is  not  to  banish  the  divine 
altogether,  but  ever  to  place  it  at  a  greater  distance  from  the 
M^orld  of  particular  facts  in  which  men  once  believed  they  saw 
it." — Kenan,  Essay  on  Islamism  and  Science. 

A  DETAILED  account  of  the  rise  and  progress  of 
the  Christian  religion  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this 
book.  But  as  that  rehgion,  more  especially  in  the 
elaborated  theological  form  which  it  ultimately  as- 
sumed, became  the  chief  barrier  to  the  development 
of  Greek  ideas;  except,  as  has  been  remarked,  in 
the  degree  that  these  were  represented  by  Aristotle, 
and  brought  into  harmony  with  it;  a  short  survey 
of  its  origin  and  early  stages  is  necessary  to  the  con- 
tinuity of  our  story. 

The  history  of  that  great  movement  is  told  ac- 
cording to  the  bias  of  the  writers.  They  explain 
its  rapid  diffusion  and  its  ultimate  triumph  over 
Paganism  as  due  either  to  its  Divine  origin  and 
guidance ;  or  to  the  favourable  conditions  of  the  time 
of  its  early  propagation,  and  to  that  wise  adaptation 
to  circumstances  which  linked  its  fortunes  with  those 

37 


38  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

of  the  progressive  peoples  of  Western  Europe.  In 
the  judgment  of  every  unofficial  narrator,  this  latter 
explanation  best  accords  with  the  facts  of  history, 
and  with  the  natural  causes  which  largely  determine 
success  or  failure.  The  most  partisan  advocates  of 
its  supernatural,  and  therefore  special,  character 
have  to  show  reason  why  the  fortunes  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  have  varied  like  those  of  other  great 
religions,  both  older  and  younger  than  it;  why,  like 
Buddhism,  it  has  been  ousted  from  the  country  in 
which  it  rose;  and  why,  in  competition  with  Brah- 
manism,  as  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  testifies  in  his  Asiatic 
Studies  (p.  no),  and  with  Mohammedanism  in 
Africa,  it  has  less  success  than  these  in  the  mission 
fields  where  it  comes  into  rivalry  with  them.  Riven 
into  wrangling  sects  from  an  early  period  of  its  his- 
tory, it  has,  while  exercising  a  beneficent  influence 
in  turbulent  and  lawless  ages,  brought  not  ''  peace 
on  earth,  but  a  sword."  It  has  been  the  cause  of  un- 
dying hate,  of  bloody  wars,  and  of  persecutions  be- 
tween parties  and  nations,  whose  animosity  seems 
the  deeper  when  stirred  by  matters  which  are  incapa- 
ble of  proof.  As  Montaigne  says,  "  Nothing  is  so 
firmly  believed  as  that  which  is  least  known."  To 
bring  the  Christian  religion,  or,  rather,  its  manifold 
forms,  from  the  purest  spirituaHstic  to  such  degraded 
type  as  exists,  for  example,  in  Abyssinia,  within  the 
operation  of  the  law  which  governs  development, 
and  which,  therefore,  includes  partial  and  local  cor- 
ruption; is  to  make  its  history  as  clear  as  it  is  pro- 


THE   ARREST  OF  INQUIRY, 


39 


foundly  instructive;  while,  to  demand  for  it  an  ori- 
gin and  character  different  in  kind  from  other  reli- 
gions, is  to  import  confusion  into  the  story  of  man- 
kind, and  to  raise  a  swarm  of  artificial  difficulties. 
''  If,"  as  John  Morley  observes  in  his  criticism  of 
Turgot's   dissertation    upon   The    Advantages    that 
the  Establishment  of  Christianity  has  conferred  upon 
the  Human  Race  (Miscell.,  vol.  ii,  p.  90),  "there 
had  been  in  the  Christian  idea  the  mysterious  self- 
sowing  quality   so   constantly   claimed   for  it,   how 
came  it  that  in  the  Eastern  part  of  the  Empire  it  was 
as  powerless  for  spiritual  or  moral  regeneration  as 
it  was  for  political  health  and  vitality;  while  in  the 
Western  part  it  became  the  organ  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  all  the  past  transformations  of  the  civilized 
world?    Is  not  the  difference  to  be  explained  by  the 
difference  in  the  surrounding  medium,  and  what  is 
the  effect  of  such  an  explanation  upon  the  super- 
natural claims  of  the  Christian  idea?"    Its  inclusion 
as  one  of  other  modes,  varying  only  in  degree,  by 
which  man  has  progressed  from  the  "  ape  and  tiger  " 
stage  to  the  highest  ideals  of  the  race,  makes  clear 
what  concerns  us  here,  namely,  its  attitude  toward 
secular  knowledge,  and  the  consequent  serious  ar- 
rest of  that  knowledge.     That  a  religion  which  its 
followers  claim  to  be  of  supernatural  origin,  and  se- 
cured from  error  by  the  perpetual  guidance   of  a 
Holy  Spirit,  should  have  opposed  inquiry  into  mat- 
ters the  faculty  for  investigating  which  -lay  within 
human  power  and  province;  that  it  should  actually 


40  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

have  put  to  death  those  who  dared  thus  to  inquire, 
and  to  make  known  what  they  had  discovered;  is  a 
problem  which  its  advocates  may  settle  among  them- 
/selves.  It  is  no  problem  to  those  who  take  the  op- 
posite view. 

In  outlining  the  history  of  Christianity  stress  will 
be  here  laid  only  upon  those  elements  which  caused 
it  to  be  an  arresting  force  in  man's  intellectual  de- 
velopment, and,  therefore,  in  his  spiritual  emanci- 
pation from  terrors  begotten  of  ignorance.  It  does 
not  fall  within  our  survey  to  speak  of  that  primary 
element  in  it  which  was  before  all  dogma,  and  which 
may  survive  when  dogma  has  become  only  a  matter 
of  antiquarian  interest.  That  element,  born  of  emo- 
tion, which,  as  a  crowd  of  kindred  examples  show, 
incarnates,  and  then  deifies  the  object  of  its  worship, 
was  the  belief  in  the  manifestation  of  the  divine 
through  the  human  Jesus  who  had  borne  men's 
griefs,  carried  their  sorrows,  and  offered  rest  to  the 
weary  and  heavy-laden.  For  no  religion — and  here 
Evolution  comes  in  as  witness — can  take  root  which 
does  not  adapt  itself  to,  and  answer  some  need  of, 
the  heart  of  man.  Hence  the  importance  of  study 
of  the  history  of  all  religions. 

Evolution  knows  only  one  heresy — the  denial  of 
continuity.  Recognising  the  present  as  the  outcome 
of  the  past,  it  searches  after  origins.  It  knows  that 
both  that  which  revolts  us  in  man's  spiritual  history 
has,  alike  with  that  which  attracts,  its  place,  its  neces- 
sary place,  in  the  development  of  ideas,  and  is,  there- 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  41 

fore,  capable  of  explanation  from  its  roots  upward. 
For  this  age  is  sympathetic,  not  flippant.  It  looks 
with  no  favour  on  criticism  that  is  only  destructive, 
or  on  ridicule  or  ribaldry  as  modes  of  attack  on 
current  beliefs.  Hence  we  have  the  modern  science 
of  comparative  theology,  with  its  Hibbert  Lectures, 
and  Gifford  Lectures,  which  are  critical  and  construc- 
tive; as  opposed  to  Bampton  Lectures,  Boyle  and 
Hulse  Lectures,  which  are  apologetic,  the  speaker 
holding  an  official  brief.  Of  the  Boyle  Lecturers, 
Collings  the  "  Deist "  caustically  said  that  nobody 
doubted  the  existence  of  the  Deity  till  they  set  to 
work  to  prove  it.  Religions  are  no  longer  treated  as 
true  or  false,  as  inventions  of  priests  or  of  divine 
origin,  but  as  the  product  of  man's  intellectual  specu- 
lations, however  crude  or  coarse;  and  of  his  spiritual 
needs,  no  matter  in  what  repulsive  form  they  are  sat- 
isfied. For  "  proofs  "  and  "  evidences  "  we  have  sub- 
stituted explanations. 

Nevertheless,  so  strong,  often  so  bitter,  are  the 
feelings  aroused  over  the  most  temperate  discussion 
of  the  origin  of  Christianity  that  it  remains  necessary 
to  repeat  that  to  explain  is  not  to  attack,  and  that 
to  narrate  is  not  to  apportion  blame,  for  no  religion 
can  do  aught  than  reflect  the  temper  of  the  age  in 
which  it  flourishes. 

Let  us  now  summarize  certain  occurrences  which, 
although  famiHar  enough,  must  be  repeated  for  the 
clear  understanding  of  their  effects. 

Some  sixty  years  after  the  death  of  Lucretius 


42  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

there  happened,  in  the  subsequent  behef  of  milHons 
of  mankind,  an  event  for  which  all  that  had  gone 
before  in  the  history  of  this  planet  is  said  to  have 
been  a  preparation.  In  the  fulness  of  time  the  Om- 
nipotent maker  and  ruler  of  a  universe  to  which 
no  boundaries  can  be  set  by  human  thought,  sent  to 
this  earth-speck  no  less  a  person  than  His  Eternal 
Son.  He  was  said  to  have  been  born,  not  by  the 
natural  processes  of  generation,  but  to  have  been 
incarnated  in  the  womb  of  a  virgin,  retaining  his 
divine  nature  while  subjecting  it  to  human  limita- 
tions. This  he  had  done  that  he  might,  as  sinless 
man,  become  an  expiatory  sacrifice  to  offended 
deity,  and  to  the  requirements  of  divine  justice,  for 
the  sins  which  the  human  race  had  committed  since 
the  transgression  of  Adam  and  Eve,  or  which  men 
yet  to  be  born  might  commit. 

The  "  miraculous  "  birth  of  Jesus  took  place  at 
Nazareth  in  Galilee,  in  the  reign  of  Caesar  Augustus, 
about  750  A.  u.  c,  as  the  Romans  reckoned  time. 
Tradition  afterward  fixed  his  birthday  on  the  25th 
December,  which,  curiously  enough,  although,  per- 
haps, explaining  the  choice,  was  the  day  dedicated  to 
the  sun-god  Mithra,  an  Oriental  deity  to  whom  altars 
had  been  raised  and  sacrifices  performed,  with  rites 
of  baptisms  of  blood,  in  hospitable  Rome. 

Jesus  is  said  to  have  lived  in  the  obscurity  of  his 
native  mountain  village  till  his  thirtieth  year.  Ex- 
cept one  doubtful  story  of  his  going  to  Jerusalem 
with  his  parents  when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  noth- 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  43 

ing  is  recorded  in  the  various  biographies  of  him 
between  his  birth  and  his  appearance  as  a  pubUc 
teacher.  Probably  he  followed  his  father's  trade  as 
a  carpenter.  The  event  that  seems  to  have  called 
him  from  home  was  the  preaching  of  an  enthusi- 
astic ascetic  named  John  the  Baptist.  At  his  hands 
Jesus  submitted  to  the  baptismal  rite,  and  then  en- 
tered on  his  career,  wandering  from  place  to  place. 
The  fragments  of  his  discourses,  which  have  survived 
in  the  short  biographies  known  as  the  Gospels,  show 
him  to  have  been  gifted  with  a  simple,  winning  style, 
and  his  sermons,  brightened  by  happy  illustration 
or  striking  parable,  went  home  to  the  hearts  of  his 
hearers.  Women,  often  of  the  outcast  class,  were 
drawn  to  him  by  the  sympathy  which  attracted  even 
more  than  his  teaching.  Among  a  people  to  whom 
the  unvarying  order  of  Nature  was  an  idea  wholly 
foreign — for  Greek  speculations  had  not  penetrated 
into  Palestine — stories  of  miracle-working  fotmd 
easy  credit,  falling  in,  as  they  did,  with  popular  be- 
lief in  the  constant  intervention  of  deity.  Thus,  to 
the  reports  of  what  Jesus  taught  were  added  those 
of  the  wonders  which  he  had  wrought,  from  feeding 
thousands  of  folk  with  a  few  loaves  of  bread  to  rais- 
ing the  dead  to  life.  His  itinerant  mission  secured 
him  a  few  devoted  followers  from  various  towns  and 
villages,  while  the  effect  of  success  upon  himself 
was  to  heighten  his  own  conception  of  the  impor- 
tance of  his  work.  The  skill  of  the  Romans  in  fusing 
together  subject  races  had  failed  them  in  the  case  of 


44  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

the  Jews,  whose  behef  in  their  special  place  in  the 
world  as  the  "  chosen  people  "  never  forsook  them. 
Nor  had  their  misfortunes  weakened  their  belief  that 
the  Messiah  predicted  by  their  prophets  would  ap- 
pear to  deliver  them,  and  plant  their  feet  on  the  neck 
of  the  hated  conqueror.  This  hope,  as  became  a 
pious  Jew,  Jesus  shared,  but  it  set  him  brooding 
on  some  nobler,  because  more  spiritual,  conception 
of  it  than  his  fellow-countrymen  nurtured.  Finally, 
it  led  him  to  the  belief,  fostered  by  the  ambition  of 
his  nearer  disciples,  which  was,  however,  material 
in  its  hopes,  that  he  was  the  spiritual  Messiah.  In 
that  faith  he  repaired  to  Jerusalem  at  the  time  of 
the  Passover  feast  when  the  city  was  crowded  with 
devotees,  that  he  might,  before  the  chief  priests  and 
elders,  make  his  appeal  to  the  nation.  According 
to  the  story,  his  daring  in  clearing  the  holy  temple 
of  money-changers  and  traders  led  to  his  appearance 
before  the  Sanhedrin,  the  highest  judicial  council; 
his  plainness  of  speech  raised  the  fury  of  the  sects; 
and  when,  dreaming  of  a  purer  faith,  he  spoke  omi- 
nous words  about  the  destruction  of  the  temple,  the 
charge  of  blasphemy  was  laid  against  him.  His  guilt 
was  made  clear  to  his  judges  when,  answering  a 
question  of  the  high  priest,  he  declared  himself  to  be 
the  Messiah.  This,  involving  claim  to  kingship  over 
the  Jews,  and  therefore  rebellion  against  the  Empire, 
was  made  the  plea  of  haling  him  before  the  Roman 
governor,  Pontius  Pilate,  for  trial.  Pilate,  looking 
upon  the  whole  affair  as  a  local  emeuie,  was  disin- 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  45 

clined  to  severity,  but  nothing  short  of  the  death  of 
Jesus  as  a  blasphemer  (aUhough  his  chief  offence 
appears  to  have  been  his  disclaimer  of  earthly  sov- 
ereignty) would  satisfy  the  angry  mob.  Amidst  their 
taunts  and  jeers  he  was  taken  to  a  place  named  Cal- 
vary, and  there  put  to  death  by  the  torturing  process 
of  crucifixion,  or,  the  particular  mode  not  being  clear, 
of  transfixion  on  a  stake. 

This  tragic  event,  on  which,  as  is  still  widely  held, 
hang  the  destinies  of  mankind  to  the  end  of  time, 
attracted  no  attention  outside  Judaea.  In  the 
Roman  eye,  cold,  contemptuous,  and  practical,  it  was 
but  the  execution  of  a  troublesome  fanatic  who  had 
embroiled  himself  with  his  fellow-countrymen,  and 
added  the  crime  of  sedition  to  the  folly  of  blasphemy. 
Pilate  himself  passed  on,  without  more  ado,  to  the 
next  duty.  Tradition,  anxious  to  prove  that  retri- 
bution followed  his  criminal  act,  as  it  was  judged  in 
after-time  to  be,  tells  how  he  flung  himself  in  remorse 
from  the  mountain  known  as  Pilatus,  which  over- 
looks the  lake  of  Lucerne.  With  truer  insight,  a 
striking  modern  story,  L'Etui  de  Nacre,  by  Anatole 
France,  makes  Pilate,  on  his  retirement  to  Sicily  in 
old  age,  thus  refer  to  the  incident  in  conversation 
with  a  Roman  friend  who  had  loved  a  Jewish  maiden. 

"  A  few  months  after  I  had  lost  sight  of  her  I  heard  by 
accident  that  she  had  joined  a  small  party  of  men  and  women 
who  were  following  a  young  Galilean  miracle-worker.  His 
name  was  Jesus,  he  came  from  Nazareth,  and  he  was  crucified 
for  I  don't  know  what  crime.  Pontius,  do  you  remember  this 
man  }     Pontius  Pilate  knit  his  brow,  and  put  his  hand  to  his 


46  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

forehead  like  one  who  is  searching  his  memory ;  then  after  a 
few  moments  of  silence:  'Jesus,'  murmured  he,  'Jesus  of 
Nazareth.     No,  I  don't  remember  him.'  " 

On  the  third  day  after  his  death,  Jesus  is  said  to 
have  risen  from  the  grave,  and  appeared  to  a  faith- 
ful few  of  his  disciples.  On  the  fortieth  day  after 
his  resurrection  he  is  said  to  have  ascended  to  heaven. 
Both  these  statements  rest  on  the  authority  of  the 
biographies  which  were  compiled  some  years  after 
his  death.  Jesus  wrote  nothing  himself;  therefore 
the  "  brethren,"  as  his  intimate  followers  called  one 
another,  had  no  other  sacred  books  than  those  of  the 
Old  Testament.  They  believed  that  Jesus  was  the 
Messiah  predicted  in  Daniel  and  some  of  the  apocry- 
phal writings,  and  they  cherished  certain  "  logia  "  or 
sayings  of  his  which  formed  the  basis  of  the  first 
three  Gospels.  The  earliest  of  these,  that  bearing 
the  name  of  Mark,  probably  took  the  shape  in  which 
we  have  it  (some  spurious  verses  at  the  end  excepted) 
about  70  A.  D.  The  fourth  Gospel,  which  tradition 
attributes  to  John,  is  generally  believed  to  be  half  a 
century  later  than  Mark.  It  seems  likely  that  the 
importance  of  collecting  the  words  of  Jesus  into  any 
permanent  form  did  not  occur  to  those  who  had 
heard  them,  because  the  belief  in  his  speedy  return 
was  all-powerful  among  them,  and  their  life  and  at- 
titude toward  everything  was  shaped  accordingly. 

Without  sacred  books,  priesthood,  or  organiza- 
tion, these  earliest  disciples,  whom  the  fate  of  their 
leader  had  driven  into  hiding  for  a  time,  gathered 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  47 

themselves  into  groups  for  communion  and  worship. 
"  In  the  church  of  Jerusalem,"  says  Selden  in  his 
Table  Talk  (xiv),  "  the  Christians  were  but  another 
sect  of  Jews  that  did  believe  the  Messias  was  come." 
From  that  sacred  city  there  went  forth  preachers  of 
this  simple  doctrine  through  the  lands  where  Greek- 
speaking  Jews,  known  as  those  of  the  Dispersion, 
had  been  long  settled.  These  formed  a  very  impor- 
tant element  in  the  Roman  Empire,  being  scattered 
from  Asia  Minor  to  Egypt,  and  thence  in  all  the 
lands  washed  by  the  Mediterranean.  As  their  racial 
isolation  and  national  hopes  made  them  the  least 
contented  among  the  subject-peoples,  a  series  of  tol- 
erant measures  securing  them  certain  privileges,  sub- 
ject to  loyal  behaviour,  had  been  prudently  granted 
by  their  Roman  masters.  The  new  teaching  spread 
from  Antioch  to  Alexandria  and  Rome.  But  early 
in  the  onward  career  of  the  movement  a  division 
broke  out  among  the  immediate  disciples  of  Jesus 
which  ended  in  lasting  rupture.  A  distinguished 
convert  had  been  won  to  the  faith  in  the  person  of 
the  Apostle  Paul.  He  is  the  real  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity as  a  more  or  less  systematized  creed,  and  all 
the  development  of  dogma  which  followed  are  in- 
tegral parts  of  the  structure  raised  by  him.  He  con- 
verted it  from  a  local  religion  into  a  widespread 
faith.  This  came  about,  at  the  start,  through  his  de- 
feat of  the  narrower  section  headed  by  Peter,  who 
would  have  compelled  all  non-Jewish  converts  to 
submit  to  the  rite  of  circumcision. 


48 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


The  unity  of  the  Empire  gave  Christianity  its 
chance.  Through  the  connection  of  Eurasia  from 
the  Euphrates  to  the  Atlantic  by  magnificent  roads, 
communication  between  peoples  followed  the  lines 
of  least  resistance.  Happily  for  tlfe  future  of  Chris- 
tianity, the  early  missionaries  travelled  westward, 
in  the  wake  of  the  dispersed  Jews,  along  the  Medi- 
terranean seaboard,  and  thus  its  fortunes  became 
identified  with  the  civilizing  portion  of  mankind. 
Had  they  travelled  eastward,  it  might  have  been 
blended  with  Buddhism,  or,  as  its  Gnostic  phases 
show,  become  merged  in  Oriental  mysticism.  The 
story  of  progress  ran  smoothly  till  a.  d.  64,  when  we 
first  hear  of  the  ''  Christians  " — for  by  such  name 
they  had  become  known — in  "  profane  "  history,  as 
it  was  once  oddly  called.  Tacitus,  writing  many 
years  after  the  event,  tells  how  on  the  night  of  the 
1 8th  July,  in  the  sixty-fourth  year  of  our  era,  a  fierce 
fire  broke  out  in  Rome,  causing  the  destruction  of 
magnificent  buildings  raised  by  Augustus,  and  of 
priceless  works  of  Greek  art.  Suspicion  fell  on 
Nero,  and  he,  as  has  been  suggested,  was  instigated 
by  his  wife  Poppaea  Sabina,  an  unscrupulous  woman, 
and,  according  to  some  authorities,  a  convert  to 
Judaism,  "  to  put  an  end  to  the  common  talk,  by 
imputing  the  fire  to  others,  visiting,  with  a  refine- 
ment of  punishment,  those  detestable  criminals  who 
went  by  the  name  of  Christians.  The  author  of  that 
denomination  was  Christus,  who  had  been  executed 
in  the  time  of  Tiberius,  by  the  procurator,  Pontius 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  ^g 

Pilate."  Tacitus  goes  on  to  describe  Christianity  as 
"  a  pestilent  superstition,"  and  its  adherents  as  guilty 
of  "  hatred  to  the  human  race."  The  indictment,  on 
the  face  of  it,  seems  strange,  but  it  has  an  explana- 
tion, although  the  Christians  were  brutally  murdered 
on  the  charge  of  arson,  and  not  of  superstition.  So 
far  as  religious  persecution  went,  they  suffered  this 
first  at  the  hands  of  Jews,  the  Empire  intervening  to 
protect  them.  Broadly  speaking,  the  Roman  note 
was  toleration.  Throughout  the  Empire  religion  was 
a  national  affair,  because  it  began  and  ended  with  the 
preservation  of  the  State.  Thereupon  it  was  the  bind- 
ing duty — religio — of  every  citizen  to  pay  due  honour 
to  the  protecting  gods  on  whose  favour  the  safety  of 
the  State  depended.  That  done,  a  man  might  be- 
lieve what  he  chose.  Polytheism  is,  from  its  nature, 
easy-going  and  tolerant;  so  long  as  there  was  no 
open  opposition  to  the  authorized  public  worship, 
the  worshipper  could  explain  it  any  way  he  chose. 
In  Greece  a  man  "  might  believe  or  disbelieve  that 
the  Mysteries  taught  the  doctrine  of  immortality; 
the  essential  thing  was  that  he  should  duly  sacrifice 
his  pig."  In  Rome,  that  vast  Cosmopolis,  "  the  or- 
dinary pagan  did  not  care  two  straws  whether  his 
neighbour  worshipped  twenty  gods  or  twenty-one." 
Why  should  he  care? 

Now,  against  all  this,  the  Christians  set  their 
faces  sternly,  and  the  result  was  to  make  them  re- 
garded as  anti-patriotic  and  anti-social.  Their  suc- 
cess among  the  lower  classes  had  been  rapid.    Chris- 


50  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

tianity  levelled  all  distinctions :  it  welcomed  the  mas- 
ter and  his  slave,  the  outcast  and  the  pure:  it  treated 
woman  as  the  spiritual  equal  of  man:  it  held  out  to 
each  the  hope  of  a  future  life.  Thus  far,  all  was  to 
the  good,  although  the  old  Mithraic  religion  had 
done  well-nigh  as  much.  But  Christianity  held  aloof 
from  the  common  social  life,  putting  itself  out  of 
touch  with  the  manifold  activity  of  Rome.  It  sought 
to  apply  certain  maxims  of  Jesus  literally;  it  dis- 
couraged marriage,  it  brought  disunion  into  family 
life;  it  counselled  avoidance  of  service  in  the  army 
or  acceptance  of  any  public  office.  This  general 
attitude  was  wholly  due  to  the  belief  that  with  the 
return  of  Jesus,  the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand. 
For  Jesus  had  foretold  his  second  coming,  and  the 
earliest  epistles  of  the  apostles  bade  the  faithful  pre- 
pare for  it.  Here  there  was  no  continuing  city;  citi- 
zenship was  in  heaven,  for  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
was  not  of  this  world.  Therefore  to  give  thought  to 
the  earthly  and  fleeting  was  folly  and  impiety,  for 
who  would  care  to  heap  up  wealth,  to  strive  for  place 
or  to  pursue  pleasure,  or  to  search  after  what  men 
called  "  wisdom,"  when  these  imperilled  the  soul, 
and  blocked  the  way  to  heaven? 

The  prejudice  created  by  this  belief,  expressed  in 
such  direct  action  as  refusal  to  worship  the  guardian 
gods  and  the  "  genius  "  of  the  Emperor,  was  deep- 
ened by  ugly,  although  baseless,  rumours  as  to  the 
cruel  and  immoral  things  done  by  the  Christians  at 
their  secret  meetings.    And  so  it  came  to  pass  that 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  51 

Tacitus  Spoke  of  Christianity  in  the  terms  quoted; 
that  Epictetus  and  Marcus  Aurehus  (who  refers  to 
it  only  once  in  his  Meditations)  dismissed  it  with  a 
scornful  phrase;  that  the  common  people  called  it 
atheistic;  and  that,  finally,  it  became  a  proscribed 
and  persecuted  religion. 

Further  than  this  there  is  no  need  to  pursue  its 
career  until,  with  wholly  changed  fortunes,  we  meet 
it  as  a  tolerated  religion  under  a  so-called  Christian 
Emperor.  The  object  in  tracing  it  thus  far  is  to 
indicate  how  enthusiasts,  thus  filled  with  an  anti- 
worldly  spirit,  would  become  and  remain  an  arresting 
force  against  the  advance  of  inquiry  and,  therefore, 
of  knowledge;  and  how,  as  their  religion  gathered 
power,  and  itself  became  worldly  in  policy,  it  would 
the  more  strongly  assert  supremacy  over  the  reason. 
For  intellectual  activity  would  lead  to  inquiry  into 
the  claims  and  authority  of  the  Church,  and  inquiry, 
therefore,  was  the  thing  to  be  proscribed.  Then, 
too,  the  committal  of  the  floating  biographies  of 
Jesus  to  written  form,  and  their  grouping,  with  the 
letters  of  the  apostles,  into  one  more  or  less  com- 
plete collection,  tO'  be  afterward  called  the  New 
Testament  (a  collection  held  to  embrace,  as  the 
theory  of  inspiration  became  formulated,  all  that  it 
is  needful  for  man  to  know),  would  create  a  further 
barrier  against  intellectual  activity.  Then,  as  Chris- 
tianity came  into  nearer  touch  with  the  enfeebled 
remnants  of  Greek  philosophy,  and  with  other  for- 
eign influences  shaping  its  dogmas,  discussions  about 


52 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


the  person  of  Christ  became  active.  The  simple  flu- 
ent creed  of  the  early  Christians  took  rigid  form  in 
the  subtleties  of  the  Nicene  Creed,  and  as  "  Very- 
God  of  Very  God  "  the  final  appeal  was,  logically,  to 
the  words  of  Jesus.  Hence  another  barrier  against 
inquiry. 

Conflict  has  never  arisen  on  the  ethical  sayings 
of  Jesus,  which,  making  allowance  for  the  impracti- 
cableness  of  a  few,  place  him  high  among  the  sages 
of  antiquity.  Comparing  their  teaching  with  his,  it 
is  easy  to  group  together  maxims  which  do  not  yield 
to  the  more  famous  examples  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  as  guides  to  conduct,  or  as  inspiration  to 
high  ideals.  The  ''  golden  rule  "  is  anticipated  by 
Plato's  "  Thou  shalt  not  take  that  which  is  mine, 
and  may  I  do  to  others  as  I  would  that  they  should 
do  to  me  "  (Jowett's  translation,  v,  p.  483).  And 
it  is  paralleled  by  Isocrates,  a  contemporary  of  Plato, 
in  those  words  spoken  by  the  King  Nicocles  when 
addressing  his  governors,  "  You  should  be  to  others 
what  you  think  I  should  be  to  you."  But  if  there  was 
nothing  new  in  what  Jesus  taught,  there  was  fresh- 
ness in  the  method.  Conflict  is  waged  only  over 
statements  the  nature  and  limits  of  which  might  be 
expected  from  the  place  and  age  when  they  were 
delivered.  They  who  hold  that  Jesus  was  God  the 
Son  Eternal,  and  therefore  incapable  of  error,  may 
reconcile,  as  best  they  can  with  this,  his  beHef  in  the 
mischievous  delusions  of  his  time.  If  they  say  that 
so  much  of  this  as  may  be  reported  in  the  records  of 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  53 

his  life  are  spurious,  they  throw  the  whole  contents 
of  the  gospels  into  the  melting-pot  of  criticism. 

Taking  the  narratives  as  we  have  them,  docu- 
ments stamped  with  the  hall-mark  of  the  centuries, 
"  declaring,"  as  a  body  of  clergymen  proclaimed  re- 
cently, "  incontrovertibly  the  actual  historical  truth 
in  all  records,  both  of  past  events,  and  of  the  deliv- 
ery of  predictions  to  be  thereafter  fulfilled,"  we  learn 
that  Jesus  accepted  the  accuracy  of  the  sacred  writ- 
ings of  his  people;  that  he  spoke  of  Moses  as  the 
author  of  the  Pentateuch ;  that  he  referred  to  its  leg- 
ends as  dealing  with  historical  persons,  and  as  re- 
porting actual  events.  All  these  beliefs  are  refuted 
by  the  critical  scholarship  of  to-day.  We  need  not 
go  to  Germany  for  the  verdict;  it  is  indorsed  by 
eminent  Hebraists,  officials  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. Canon  Driver,  Professor  of  Hebrew  at  Ox- 
ford, says  that  "  like  other  people,  the  Jews  formed 
theories  to  account  for  the  beginnings  of  the  earth 
and  man  ";  that  "  they  either  did  this  for  themselves, 
or  borrowed  from  their  neighbours,"  and  that  "  of 
the  theories  current  in  Assyria  and  Phoenicia  frag- 
ments have  been  preserved  which  exhibit  parts  of 
resemblance  to  the  Bible  narratives  sufficient  to  war- 
rant the  inference  that  both  are  derived  from  the 
same  cycle  of  traditions."  If,  therefore,  the  cos- 
mogonic  and  other  legends  are  inspired,  so  must  also 
the  common  original  of  these  and  their  correspond- 
ing stories  be  inspired.  The  matter  might  be  pur- 
sued through  the  patriarchal  age  to  the  eve  of  the 


54  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

Exodus,  showing  that,  here  also,  the  mythical  ele- 
ment is  dominant;  the  existence  of  Abraham  him- 
self dissolving  in  the  solution  of  the  '*  higher  criti- 
cism." As  to  the  Pentateuch,  the  larger  number  of 
scholars  place  its  composition,  in  the  form  in  which 
we  have  it — older  documents  being  blended  therein 
— about  the  sixth  and  fifth  centuries  b.  c. 

Jesus  spoke  of  the  earth  as  if  it  were  flat,  and 
the  most  important  among  the  heavenly  bodies. 
Knowledge  of  the  active  speculations  that  went  on 
centuries  before  his  time  on  the  Ionian  seaboard; 
prevision  of  what  secrets  men  would  wrest  from  the 
stars  centuries  hence — of  neither  did  he  dream.  That 
Homer  and  Virgil  had  sung;  that  Plato  had  dis- 
coursed; that  Buddha  had  founded  a  religion  with 
which  his,  when  Western  activity  met  Eastern  pas- 
sivity, would  vainly  compete;  these,  and  aught  else 
that  had  moved  the  great  world  without,  were  un- 
known to  the  Syrian  teacher. 

Jesus  believed  in  an  arch-fiend,  who  was  per- 
mitted by  Omnipotence,  the  Omnipotence  against 
which  he  had  rebelled,  to  set  loose  countless  num- 
bers of  evil  spirits  to  work  havoc  on  men  and  ani- 
mals. Jesus  also  believed  in  a  hell  of  eternal  tor- 
ment for  the  wicked;  and  in  a  heaven  of  unending 
happiness  for  the  good.  There  is  no  surer  index  of 
the  intellectual  stage  of  any  people  than  the  degree 
in  which  belief  in  the  supernatural,  and  especially 
in  the  activity  of  supernatural  agents,  rules  their  lives. 
The  lower  we  descend,  the  more  detailed  and  famil- 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  55 

iar  is  the  assumption  of  knowledge  of  the  behaviour 
of  these  agents,  and  of  the  nature  of  the  places  they 
come  from  or  haunt.  Of  this,  mediaeval  speculations 
on  demonology,  and  modern  books  of  anthropology, 
supply  any  number  of  examples.  Here  we  are  con- 
cerned only  with  the  momentous  fact  that  belief  in 
demoniacal  activity  pervades  the  New  Testament 
from  beginning  to  end,  and,  therefore,  gave  the  war- 
rant for  the  unspeakable  cruelties  with  which  that 
belief  has  stained  the  annals  of  Christendom.  John 
Wesley  was  consistent  when  he  wrote  that  "  Giving 
up  the  belief  in  witchcraft  was  in  effect  giving  up 
the  Bible,"  and  it  may  be  added  that  giving  up  be- 
lief in  the  devil  is  giving  up  belief  in  the  atonement 
— the  central  doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith.  To  this 
the  early  Christians  would  have  subscribed:  so,  also, 
would  the  great  Augustine,  who  said  that  "  nothing 
is  to  be  accepted  save  on  the  authority  of  Scripture, 
since  greater  is  that  authority  than  all  the  powers 
of  the  human  mind  " ;  so  would  all  who  have  followed 
him  in  ancient  confessions  of  the  faith.  It  is  only 
the  amorphous  form  of  that  faith  which,  lingering 
on,  anaemic  and  boneless,  denies  by  evasion. 

But  they  who  abandon  belief  in  maleficent  de- 
mons and  in  witches;  as  also,  for  this  follows,  in  be- 
neficent agents,  as  angels;  land  themselves  in  serious 
dilemma.  For  to  this  are  such  committed.  If  Jesus, 
who  came  "  that  he  might  destroy  the  works  of  the 
devil,"  and  who  is  reported,  among  other  proofs  of 
his  divine  ministry,  to  have  cast  out  demons  from 


56  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

"  possessed "  human  beings,  and,  in  one  case,  to 
have  permitted  a  crowd  of  the  infernal  agents  to 
enter  into  a  herd  of  swine;  if  he  verily  believed  that 
he  actually  did  these  things;  and  if  it  be  true  that  the 
belief  is  a  superstition  limited  to  the  ignorant  or 
barbaric  mind ;  what  value  can  he  attached  to  any  state- 
ment that  Jesus  is  reported  to  have  made  about  a  spiritual 
zvorldf 

Here  then  (i)  in  the  attitude  of  the  early  Chris- 
tians toward  all  mundane  affairs  as  of  no  moment 
compared  with  those  affecting  their  souls'  salvation; 

(2)  in  the  assumed  authority  of  Scripture  as  a  full 
revelation  of  both  earthly  and  heavenly  things;  and 

(3)  in  the  assumed  infallibility  of  the  words  of  Jesus 
reported  therein;  we  have  three  factors  which  suf- 
fice to  explain  why  the  great  movement  toward  dis- 
covery of  the  orderly  relations  of  phenomena  was 
arrested  for  centuries,  and  theories  of  capricious  gov- 
ernment of  the  universe  sheltered  and  upheld. 

While,  as  has  been  said,  the  unity  of  the  Empire 
secured  Christianity  its  fortunate  start;  the  multi- 
form elements  of  which  the  Empire  was  made  up — 
philosophic  and  pagan — being  gradually  absorbed 
by  Christianity,  secured  it  acceptance  among  the 
different  subject-peoples.  The  break  up  of  the  Em- 
pire secured  its  supremacy. 

The  absorption  of  foreign  ideas  and  practices  by 
Christianity,  largely  through  the  influence  of  Hel- 
lenic Jews,  was  an  added  cause  of  arrest  of  inquiry. 
The  adoption  of  pagan  rites  and  customs,  resting, 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  57 

as  these  did,  on  a  bedrock  of  barbarism,  dragged  it 
to  a  lower  level.  The  intrusion  of  philosophic  sub- 
tleties led  to  terms  being  mistaken  for  explanations: 
as  Gibbon  says,  "  the  pride  of  the  professors  and  of 
their  disciples  was  satisfied  with  the  science  of 
words."  The  inchoate  and  mobile  character  of  Chris- 
tianity during  the  first  three  centuries  gave  both  in- 
fluences— pagan  and  philosophic — their  opportunity. 
For  long  years  the  converts  scattered  throughout  the 
Empire  were  linked  together,  in  more  or  less  regular 
federation,  by  the  acknowledgment  of  Christ  as  Lord, 
and  by  the  expectation  of  his  second  coming.  There 
was  no  official  priesthood,  only  overseers — "  epis- 
kopoi " — for  social  purposes,  who  made  no  claims 
to  apostolic  succession;  no  formulated  set  of  doc- 
trines; no  Apostles'  Creed;  no  dogmas  of  baptismal 
regeneration  or  of  the  real  presence;  no  worship  or 
apotheosis  of  Mary  as  the  Mother  of  God;  no  wor- 
ship of  saints  or  relics. 

On  the  philosophic  side,  it  was  the  Greek  influence 
in  the  person  of  the  more  educated  converts  that 
shaped  the  dogmas  of  the  Church  and  sought  to 
blend  them  with  the  occult  and  mysterious  elements 
in  Oriental  systems,  of  which  modern  "  Theosophy  " 
is  the  tenuous  parody.  That  old  Greek  habit  of  ask- 
ing questions,  of  seeking  to  reach  the  reason  of 
things,  which,  as  has  been  seen,  gave  the  great  im- 
pulse to  scientific  inquiry,  was  as  active  as  ever. 
Appeals  to  the  Old  Testament  touched  not  the  Greek 
as  they  did  the  Jewish  Christian,  and  the  Canon  of 
5 


58 


PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 


the  New  Testament  was  as  yet  unsettled.  Strange 
as  it  may  seem  in  view  of  the  assumed  divine  origin 
of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  human  judgment  took 
upon  itself  to  decide  which  of  them  were,  and  which 
were  not,  an  integral  part  of  supernatural  revelation. 
The  ultimate  verdict,  so  far  as  the  Western  Church 
was  concerned,  was  delivered  by  the  Council  of 
Carthage  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century.  There 
arose  a  school  of  Apologists,  founders  of  theology, 
who,  to  quote  Gibbon,  "  equipped  the  Christian  re- 
Hgion  for  the  conquest  of  the  Roman  world  by 
changing  it  into  a  philosophy,  attested  by  Revela- 
tion. They  mingled  together  the  metaphysics  of 
Platonism,  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  which  came 
from  the  Stoics,  morality  partly  Platonic,  partly 
Stoic,  methods  of  argument  and  interpretation  learnt 
from  Philo,  with  the  pregnant  maxims  of  Jesus  and 
the  religious  language  of  the  Christian  congrega- 
tions." Thus  the  road  was  opened  for  additions  to 
dogmatic  theology,  doctrines  of  the  Trinity,  of  the 
Virgin  Birth,  and  whatever  else  could  be  inferentially 
extracted  from  the  Scriptures,  and  blended  with  for- 
eign ideas.  The  growing  complexity  of  creed  called 
for  interpretation  of  it,  and  this  obviously  fell  to  the 
overseers  or  bishops,  chosen  for  their  special  gifts 
of  "  the  grace  of  the  truth."  These  met,  as  occasion 
required,  to  discuss  subjects  afifecting  the  faith  and 
discipline  of  the  several  groups.  Among  such,  pre- 
cedence, as  a  matter  of  course,  would  be  accorded  to 
the  overseer  of  the  most  important  Christian  society 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  jq 

in  the  Empire;  and  hence  the  prominence  and  au- 
thority, from  an  early  period,  of  the  bishop  of  Rome. 
In  the  simple  and  business-like  act  of  his  election  as 
chairman  of  the  gatherings  lay  the  germ  of  the  au- 
dacious and  preposterous  claims  of  the  Papacy. 

On  the  pagan  side,  the  course  of  development  is 
not  so  easily  traced.  To  determine  when  and  where 
this  or  that  custom  or  rite  arose  is  now  impossible; 
indeed,  we  may  say,  without  exaggeration,  that  it 
never  arose  at  all,  because  the  conditions  for  its 
adoption  were  present  throughout  in  human  tend- 
encies. The  first  Christian  disciples  were  Jews:  and 
the  ritual  which  they  followed  was  the  direct  outcome 
of  ideas  common  to  all  barbaric  religions,  so  that 
certain  of  tlie  pagan  rites  and  ceremonies  with  which 
they  came  in  contact  in  all  parts  of  the  Empire  fitted 
in  with  custom,  tradition,  and  desire.  And  this  ap- 
plies, with  stronger  force,  to  the  converts  scattered 
from  Edessa,  east  of  the  Euphrates,  to  the  Empire's 
westernmost  limits  in  Britain.  Moreover,  we  know 
that  a  policy  of  adaptation  and  conciliation  wisely 
governed  the  ruling  minds  of  the  Church,  in  whom, 
stripped  of  all  the  verbiage  about  them  as  semi- 
inspired  successors  of  the  apostles,  there  was  deep- 
seated  superstition.  Paganism  might,  in  its  turn,  be 
suppressed  by  Imperial  edict,  but  it  had  too  much 
in  common  with  the  later  forms  of  Christianity  not 
to  survive  in  fact,  however  changed  in  name. 

It  may  be  taken  as  a  truism  that  in  the  cere- 
monies of  the  higher  religions  there  are  no  inven- 


6o  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION, 

tions,  only  survivals.     This  fact  sent  thinkers  like 
Hobbes,  and  dealers  in  literary  antiquities  of  the  type 
of   Burton,   Bishop   Newton,   and,   notablest  of   all, 
Conyers   Middleton,   on   the   search   after  parallels, 
which  have  received  astonishing  confirmation  in  our 
day.    Burton  sees  the  mimicry  of  the  "  arch-deceiver 
in  the  strange  sacraments,  the  priests,  and  the  sacri- 
fices," as  the  Romanist  missionaries  to  Tibet  saw 
the  same  diabolical  parody  of  their  rites  in  Buddhist 
temples.    But  Hobbes,  with  the  sagacity  which  might 
be   expected   of   him,   recognises   the   continuity   of 
ideas:    "  imitato  nomine  tantum;    Venus  and  Cupid 
(Hobbes  might  have  added  Isis  and  Horus)  appear- 
ing as  *  the  Virgin  Mary  and  her  Sonne,'  and  the 
ATToOeoio-LS  of  the  Heathen  surviving  in  the  Canon- 
ization of  Saints.     The  carrying  of  the  Popes  '  by 
Switzers  under  a  Canopie '  is  a  '  Rehque  of  the  Di- 
vine   Honours    given    to    Caesar';  the    carriage    of 
Images  in  Procession  '  a  Relique  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.'  .  .  .  '  The  Heathen  had  also  their  Aqua 
Lustralis,  that  is  to  say.  Holy  Water.     The  Church 
of  Rome  imitates  them  also  in  their  Holy  Dayes. 
They  had  their  Bacchanalia,  and  we  have  our  Wakes 
answering  to  them;  They  their  Saturnalia,  and  we 
our  Carnevalls  and  Shrove-tuesdays  liberty  of  Serv- 
ants;  They   their    Procession    of    Priapus,    we    our 
fetching-in,  erection,  and  dancing  about  May-Poles; 
and  Dancing  is  one  kind  of  worship;  They  had  their 
Procession  called  Ambarvalia,  and  we  our  Procession 
about  the  Fields  in  the  Rogation  week'  " 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  6 1 

Middleton  examined  the  matter  on  the  spot,  and 
in  his  celebrated  Letter  from  Rome  gives  numerous 
examples  of  "an  exact  Conformity  between  Popery 
and  Paganism."  Since  few  read  his  book  now-a- 
days,  some  of  these  may  be  cited,  because  their  pres- 
ence goes  far  to  explain  why  the  conglomerate  re- 
ligion which  Christianity  had  become  was  proof 
against  ideas  spurned  alike  by  pagans  and  ecclesias- 
tics. Visiting  the  place  for  classical  study,  and  "  not 
to  notice  the  fopperies  and  ridiculous  ceremonies  of 
the  present  Religion,"  Middleton  soon  found  himself 
"  still  in  old  Heathen  Rome,"  with  its  rituals  of  primi- 
tive Paganism,  as  if  handed  down  by  an  uninter- 
rupted succession  from  the  priests  of  old  to  the 
priests  of  new  Rome.  The  *'  smoak  of  the  incense  " 
in  the  churches  transports  him  to  the  temple  of  the 
Paphian  Venus  described  by  Virgil  (^neid,  I,  420) ; 
the  surpliced  boy  waiting  on  the  priest  with  the  thuri- 
ble reminds  him  of  sculptures  on  ancient  bas-reliefs 
representing  heathen  sacrifice,  with  a  white-clad  at- 
tendant on  a  priest  holding  a  little  chest  or  box  in 
his  hand.  The  use  of  holy  water  suggests  numer- 
ous parallels.  At  the  entrance  to  Pagan  temples 
stood  vases  of  holy  liquid,  a  mixture  of  salt  and 
common  water;  and,  on  bas-reliefs,  the  aspergillum 
or  brush  for  the  ceremony  of  sprinkling  is  carved. 
In  the  annual  festival  of  the  benediction  of  horses, 
when  the  animals  were  sent  to  the  convent  of  St. 
Anthony  to  be  sprinkled  (Middleton  had  his  own 
horses  thus  blest  ''  for  about  eighteenpence  of  our 


62  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

money  ")  there  is  the  survival  of  a  ceremony  in  the 
Circensian  games.  In  the  lamps  and  wax  candles 
before  the  shrines  of  the  Madonna  and  Saints  he  is 
reminded  of  a  passage  in  Herodotus  as  to  the  use  of 
lights  in  the  Egyptian  temples,  while  we  know  that 
lamps  to  the  Madonna  took  the  place  of  those  before 
the  images  of  the  Lares,  whose  chapels  stood  at  the 
corners  of  the  streets.  The  Synod  of  Elviri  (305  a.  d.) 
forbade  the  lighting  of  wax  candles  during  the  day 
in  cemeteries  lest  the  spirits  of  the  saints  should  be 
disquieted,  but  the  custom  was  too  deeply  rooted 
to  be  abolished.  As  for  votive  offerings,  Middleton 
truly  says  that  *'  no  one  custom  of  antiquity  is  so  fre- 
quently mentioned  by  all  their  writers  "  .  .  .  "  but 
the  most  common  of  all  offerings  were  pictures  repre- 
senting the  history  of  the  miraculous  cure  or  deliv- 
erance vouchsafed  upon  the  vow  of  the  donor."  Of 
which  offerings,  the  blessed  Virgin  is  so  sure  always 
to  carry  off  the  greatest  share,  that  it  may  be  truly 
said  of  her  what  Juvenal  says  of  the  Goddess  Isis, 
whose  rehgion  was  at  that  time  in  the  greatest  vogue  in 
Rome,  that  the  painters  got  their  livelihood  out  of  her!' 
Middleton  tells  the  story  from  Cicero  which,  not 
without  covert  sympathy,  Montaigne  quotes  in  his 
Essay  on  Prognostications.  Diagoras,  surnamed 
the  Atheist,  being  found  one  day  in  a  temple,  was 
thus  addressed  by  a  friend :  "  You,  who  think  the 
gods  take  no  care  of  human  affairs,  do  not  you  see 
here  by  this  number  of  pictures  how  many  people, 
for   the   sake   of   their   vows,   have   been    saved   in 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  63 

storms  at  sea,  and  got  safe  into  harbour?  "  ''  Yes," 
answered  Diagoras,  '*  I  see  how  it  is;  for  those  are 
never  painted  who  happen  to  be  drowned."  There 
is  nothing  new  under  the  sun.  Horace  (Odes,  Bk. 
I,  v)  tells  of  the  shipwrecked  sailor  who  hung  up 
his  clothes  as  a  thank-ofifering  in  the  temple  of  the 
sea-god  who  had  preserved  him;  Polydorus  Ver- 
gilius,  who  lived  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  that  is,  some  1,500  years  after  Horace,  de- 
scribes the  classic  custom  of  ex  voto  offerings  at 
length,  while  Pennant  the  antiquary,  describing  the 
well  of  Saint  Winifred  in  Flintshire  in  the  last  cen- 
tury, tells  of  the  votive  ofiferings,  in  the  shape  of 
crutches  and  other  objects,  which  were  hung  about 
it.  To  this  day  the  store  is  receiving  additions.  The 
sick  crowd  thither  as  of  old  they  crowded  into  the 
temples  of  ^sculapius  and  Serapis;  mothers  bring 
their  sick  children  as  in  Imperial  Rome  they  took 
them  to  the  Temple  of  Romulus  and  Remus.  A 
draught  of  water  from  the  basin  near  the  bath,  or 
a  plunge  in  the  bath  itself,  is  followed  by  prayers  at 
the  altar  of  the  chapel  which  incloses  the  well.  When 
the  saint's  feast-day  is  held,  the  afHicted  gather  to 
kiss  the  reliquary  that  holds  her  bones.  Perhaps 
one  of  the  most  pathetic  sights  in  Catholic  churches, 
especially  in  out-of-the-way  villages,  is  the  altars  on 
which  are  hung  votive  offerings,  rude  daubs  depict- 
ing the  disease  or  danger  from  which  the  worshipper 
has  been  delivered. 

As  to  the  images,  tricked  out  in  curious  robes 


64  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

and  gewgaws,  Middleton  "  could  not  help  recollect- 
ing the  picture  which  old  Homer  draws  of  Q.  Hecuba 
of  Troy,  prostrating  herself  before  the  miraculous 
Image  of  Pallas,''  while  his  wonder  at  the  Loretto 
image  of  the  ''  Queen  of  Heaven  "  with  "  a  face  as 
black  as  a  Negus  "  reminds  him  of  the  reference  in 
Baruch  to  the  idols  black  with  the  "  perpetual  smoak 
of  lamps  and  incense."  In  his  Hibbert  Lectures  Pro- 
fessor Rhys  refers  to  churches  dedicated  to  Notre 
Dame  in  virtue  of  legends  of  discovery  of  images  of 
the  Virgin  on  the  spot.  These  were  usually  of  wood, 
which  had  turned  black  in  the  soil.  Such  a  black 
"  Madonna  "  was  found  near  Grenoble,  in  the  com- 
mune of  La  Zouche.  Then,  in  the  titles  of  the  new 
deities,  Middleton  correctly  sees  those  of  the  old. 
The  Queen  of  Heaven  reminds  him  of  Astarte  or 
Myhtta;  the  Divine  Mother  of  the  Magna  Mater, 
the  "  great  mother  "  of  Oriental  cults.  In  other  at- 
tributes of  Mary,  lineal  descendant  of  Isis,  there  sur- 
vive those  of  Venus,  Lucina,  Cybele,  or  Maria.  He 
gives  amusing  examples  of  myths  and  misreadings 
through  which  certain  "  saints  "  have  a  place  in  the 
Roman  Calendar.  He  apparently  knew  nothing  of  the 
strange  confusion  by  which  Buddha  appears  therein 
under  the  title  of  Saint  Josaphat;  but  he  tells  how,  by 
misinterpretation  of  a  boundary  stone,  ProefectusVia- 
rum,  an  overseer  of  highways,  became  S.  Viar;  how 
S.  Veronica  secured  canonization  through  a  blunder 
over  the  words  Vera  Icon :  still  more  droll,  how  hagi- 
ology  includes  both  a  mountain  and  a  mantle! 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  65 

The  marks  of  hands  or  feet  on  rocks,  said  to  be 
made  by  the  apparition  of  some  saint  or  angel,  call 
to  mind  "  the  impression  of  Hercules'  feet  on  a  stone 
in  Scythia";  the  picture  of  the  Virgin,  which  came 
from  heaven,  suggests  the  descent  of  Numa's  shield 
"  from  the  clouds  " ;  that  of  the  weeping  Madonna 
the  statue  of  Apollo,  which  Livy  says  wept  for  three 
successive  days  and  nights;  while  the  periodical 
miracle  of  the  liquefaction  of  the  blood  of  St.  Janu- 
arius  is  obviously  paralleled  in  the  incidents  named 
by  Horace  on  his  journey  to  Brundusium,  when  the 
priests  of  the  temple  at  Gnatia  sought  to  persuade 
him  that  "  the  frankincense  used  to  dissolve  and  melt 
miraculously  without  the  help  of  fire  "  (Sat.,  v,  97- 
100). 

Middleton,  and  those  of  his  school,  thought  that 
they  were  near  primary  formations  when  they  struck 
on  these  suggestive  classic  or  pagan  parallels  to 
Christian  belief  and  custom.  But  in  truth  they  had 
probed  a  comparatively  recent  layer;  since,  far  be- 
neath, lay  the  unsuspected  prehistoric  deposits  of 
barbaric  ideas  which  are  coincident  with,  and  com- 
posed of,  man's  earliest  speculations  about  himself 
and  his  surroundings.  When,  however,  we  borrow 
an  illustration  from  geology,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  our  divisions,  like  those  into  which  the  strata  of 
the  globe  are  separated,  are  artificial.  There  is  no 
real  detachment.  The  difference  between  former  and 
present  methods  of  research  is  that  nowadays  we 
have  gone  further  down  for  discovery  of  the  common 


66  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

materials  of  which  barbaric,  pagan,  and  civilized 
ideas  are  compounded.  They  arise  in  the  comparison 
which  exists  in  the  savage  mind  between  the  living 
and  the  non-living,  and  in  the  attribution  of  like 
qualities  to  things  superficially  resembling  one  an- 
other; hence  beHef  in  their  efficacy,  which  takes 
active  form  in  what  may  be  generally  termed  magic. 
For  example,  the  rite  of  baptism  is  explained  when 
we  connect  it  with  barbaric  lustrations  and  water- 
worship  generally;  as  also  that  of  the  Eucharist  by 
reference  to  sacrificial  feasts  in  honour  of  the  gods; 
feasts  at  which  they  were  held  to  be  both  the  eaters 
and  the  eaten.  Middleton,  himself  a  clergyman, 
shows  perplexity  when  watching  the  elevation  of  the 
host  at  mass.  He  lacked  that  knowledge  of  the 
origin  of  sacramental  rites  which  study  of  barbaric 
customs  has  since  supplied.  In  Mr.  Frazer's  Golden 
Bough,  the  "  central  idea  "  of  which  is  "  the  concep- 
tion of  the  slain  god,"  he  shows  at  what  an  early 
stage  in  his  speculations  man  formulated  the  concep- 
tion of  deity  incarnated  in  himself,  or  in  plant  or  ani- 
mal, and  as  afterward  slain,  both  the  incarnation  and 
the  death  being  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  The 
god  is  his  own  sacrifice,  and  in  perhaps  the  most 
striking  form,  as  insisted  upon  by  Mr.  Frazer,  he  is, 
as  corn-spirit,  killed  in  the  person  of  his  representa- 
tive; the  passage  in  this  mode  of  incarnation  to  the 
custom  of  eating  bread  sacramentally  being  obvious. 
The  fundamental  idea  of  this  sacramental  act,  as 
the  mass  of  examples  collected  by  Mr.  Frazer  fur- 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  6/ 

ther  goes  to  show,  is  that  by  eating  a  thing  its  physi- 
cal and  mental  qualities  are  acquired.  So  the  bar- 
baric mind  reasons,  and  extends  the  notion  to  all 
beings.  To  quote  Mr.  Frazer:  "  By  eating  the  body 
of  the  god  he  shares  in  the  god's  attributes  and  pow- 
ers. And  when  the  god  is  a  corn-god,  the  corn  is 
his  proper  body;  when  he  is  a  vine-god,  the  juice 
of  the  grape  is  his  blood;  and  so  by  eating  the  bread 
and  drinking  the  wine  the  worshipper  partakes  of 
the  real  body  and  blood  of  his  god.  Thus  the  drink- 
ing of  wine  in  the  rites  of  a  vine-god  like  Dionysus  is 
not  an  act  of  revelry;  it  is  a  solemn  sacrament." 
It  is,  perhaps,  needless  to  point  out  that  the  same 
explanation  applies  to  the  rites  attaching  to  Denie- 
ter,  or  to  add  what  further  parallels  are  suggested 
in  the  belief  that  Dionysus  was  slain,  rose  again,  and 
descended  into  Hades  to  bring  up  his  mother  Semele 
from  the  dead.  This,  however,  by  the  way.  What 
has  to  be  emphasized  is,  that  in  the  quotation  just 
given  we  have  transubstantiation  clearly  anticipated 
as  the  barbaric  idea  of  eating  the  god.  In  proof  of 
the  underlying  continuity  of  that  idea  two  witnesses 
— Catholic  and  Protestant — may  be  cited. 

The  Church  of  Rome,  and  in  this  the  Greek 
Church  is  at  one  therewith,  thus  defines  the  term 
transubstantiation  in  the  Canon  of  the  Council  of 
Trent : 

"  If  any  one  shall  say  that  in  the  most  holy  sacrament  of 
the  Eucharist  there  remains  the  substance  of  bread  and  wine 
together  with  the  body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 


68  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

and  shall  deny  that  wonderful  and  singular  conversion  of  the 
whole  substance  of  the  bread  into  the  body,  and  of  the  whole 
substance  of  the  wine  into  the  blood,  the  species  of  bread  and 
wine  alone  remaining — which  conversion  the  Catholic  Church 
most  fittingly  calls  Transubstantiation — let  him  be  anathema." 

The  Church  of  England,  through  the  medium  of 
a  letter  to  a  well-known  newspaper,  the  British 
Weekly  (29th  August,  1895),  supplies  the  following 
illustration  of  the  position  of  its  "  High "  section, 
and  this,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  from  the  church 
of  which  Mr.  Gladstone's  son  is  rector,  and  in  which 
the  distinguished  statesman  himself  often  reads  the 
lessons: 

"  A  few  Sundays  ago — 8  o'clock  celebration  of  Holy  Com- 
munion.    Rector,  officiating  minister  (Hawarden  Church). 

"  When  the  point  was  reached  for  the  communicants  to 
partake,  cards  containing  a  hymn  to  be  sung  after  Communion 
were  distributed  among  the  congregation.  This  hymn  opened 
with  the  following  couplet : — 

Jesu,  mighty  Saviour, 
Thou  art  in  us  now. 

And  my  attention  was  arrested  by  an  asterisk  referring  to  a 
footnote.  The  word  '  in,'  in  the  second  line,  was  printed  in 
italics,  and  the  note  intimated  that  those  who  had  not  commu- 
nicated should  sing  \with '  instead  of  'in'  i.e.  those  who  had 
taken  the  consecrated  elements  to  sing  '  Thou  art  in  us  now,' 
and  those  who  had  not,  to  sing  *  Thou  art  with  us  now.' " 

Whether,  therefore,  the  cult  be  barbaric  or  civi- 
lized, we  find  theory  and  practice  identical.  The  god 
is  eaten  so  that  the  communicant  thereby  becomes 
a  "  partaker  of  the  divine  nature." 

In  the  gestures  denoting  sacerdotal  benediction  we 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  go 

have  probably  an  old  form  of  averting  the  evil  eye; 
in  the  act  of  breathing  on  a  bishop  at  the  service  of 
consecration  there  was  the  survival  of  belief  in  trans- 
ference of  spiritual  qualities,  the  soul  being,  as  lan- 
guage evidences,  well-nigh  universally  identified  with 
breath.  The  modern  spiritualist  who  describes  ap- 
paritions as  having  the  "  consistency  of  cigar-smoke," 
is  one  with  the  Congo  negroes  who  leave  the  house 
of  the  dead  unswept  for  a  time  lest  the  dust  should 
injure  the  delicate  substance  of  the  ghost.  The  in- 
haling of  the  last  breath  of  the  dying  Roman  by  his 
nearest  kinsman  has  parallel  in  the  breathing  of  the 
risen  Jesus  on  his  disciples  that  they  might  receive  the 
Holy  Ghost  (John  xx,  22).  In  the  offering  of  prayers 
for  the  dead;  in  the  canonization  and  intercession  of 
saints;  in  the  prayers  and  offerings  at  the  shrines  of 
the  Virgin  2ind  saints,  and  at  the  graves  of  martyrs; 
there  are  the  manifold  forms  of  that  great  cult  of  the 
departed  which  is  found  throughout  the  world.  To 
this  may  be  linked  the  belief  in  angels,  whether  good 
or  bad,  or  guardian,  because  the  element  common 
to  the  whole  is  animistic,  the  peopling  of  the  heavens 
above,  as  well  as  the  earth  beneath,  with  an  innumer- 
able company  of  spiritual  beings  influencing  the  des- 
tinies of  men.  Well  might  Jews  and  Moslems  re- 
proach the  Christians,  as  they  did  down  to  the  eighth 
century,  with  having  filled  the  world  with  more  gods 
than  they  had  overthrown  in  the  pagan  temples; 
while  we  have  Erasmus,  in  his  Encomium  Moriae, 
when  reciting  the  names  and  functions  of  saints,  add- 


70  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

ing  that  ''  as  many  things  as  we  wish,  so  many  gods 
have  we  made."  Closely  related  to  this  group  of 
beliefs  is  the  adoration  of  relics^  the  vitality  of  which 
has  springs  too  deep  in  human  nature  to  be  wholly 
abolished,  whether  we  carry  about  us  a  lock  from 
the  hair  of  some  dead  loved  one,  or  read  of  the  frag- 
ments of  saints  or  martyrs  which  lie  beneath  every 
Catholic  altar,  or  of  the  skull-bones  of  his  ancestor 
which  the  savage  carries  about  with  him  as  a  charm. 
Then  there  is  the  long  list  of  church  festivals,  the 
reference  of  which  to  pagan  prototypes  is  but^  one 
step  toward  their  ultimate  explanation  in  nature- 
worship;  there  are  the  processions  which  are  the  suc- 
cessors of  Corybantic  frenzies,  and,  more  remotely, 
of  savage  dances  and  other  forms  of  excitation; 
there  is  that  now  somewhat  casual  belief  in  the 
Second  Advent  which  is  a  member  of  the  widespread 
group  wherein  human  hopes  fix  eyes  on  the  return 
of  long-sleeping  heroes ;  of  Arthur  and  Olger  Dansk, 
of  Vainamoinen  and  Quetzalcoatl,  of  Charlemagne 
and  Barbarossa,  of  the  lost  Marko  of  Servia  and  the 
lost  King  Sebastian.  We  speak  of  it  as  "  casual," 
because  among  the  two  hundred  and  eighty-odd  sects 
scheduled  in  Whitaker's  Almanack  the  curious  in 
such  inquiries  will  note  only  three  distinctive  bodies 
of  Adventists. 

All  changes  in  popular  behef  have  been,  and, 
practically,  remain  superficial;  the  old  animism  per- 
vades the  higher  creeds.  In  our  own  island,  for  ex- 
ample, the  Celtic  and  pre-Celtic  paganism  remained 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  71 

unleavened  by  the  old  Roman  religion.  The  legions 
took  back  to  Rome  the  gods  which  they  brought  with 
them.  The  names  of  Mithra  and  Serapis  occur  on 
numerous  tablets,  the  worship  of  the  one — that  "  Sol 
invictus  "  whose  birthday  at  the  winter  solstice  be- 
came (see  p.  42)  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
Christ — had  ranged  as  far  west  as  South  Wales  and 
Northumberland;  while  the  foundations  of  a  temple 
to  the  other  have  been  unearthed  at  York.  The  chief 
Celtic  gods,  in  virtue  of  common  attributes  as  ele- 
mental nature-deities,  were  identified  with  certain 
dii  majores  of  the  Roman  pantheon,  and  the  deae 
niatres  equated  with  the  gracious  or  malevolent  spirits 
of  the  indigenous  faith.  But  the  old  names  were  not 
displaced.  Neither  did  the  earlier  Christian  mission- 
aries effect  any  organic  change  in  popular  beliefs, 
while,  during  the  submergence  of  Christianity  under 
waves  of  barbaric  invasion,  there  were  infused  into 
the  old  religion  kindred  elements  from  oversea  which 
gave  it  yet  more  vigorous  life.  The  eagle  penetra- 
tion of  Gibbon  detected  this  persistent  element  at 
work  when  he  described  the  sequel  to  the  futile  ef- 
forts of  Theodosius  to  extirpate  paganism.  The  an- 
cestor worship  which  lay  at  the  core  of  much  of  it  took 
shape  among  the  Christianized  pagans  in  the  wor- 
ship of  martyrs  and  in  the  scramble  after  their  relics. 
The  bodies  of  prophets  and  apostles  were  discovered 
by  the  strangest  coincidences,  and  transported  to  the 
churches  by  the  Tiber  and  the  Bosphorus,  and  al- 
though the  supply  of  these  more  important  remains 


72 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


was  soon  exhausted,  there  was  no  limit  to  the  pro- 
duction of  rehcs  of  their  person  or  belongings,  as 
of  filings  from  the  chains  of  S.  Peter,  and  from  the 
gridiron  of  S.  Lawrence.  The  catacombs  yielded 
any  number  of  the  bodies  of  martyrs,  and  Rome  be- 
came a  huge  manufactory  to  meet  the  demands  for 
wonder-working  relics  from  every  part  of  Christen- 
dom. A  sceptical  feeling  might  be  aroused  at  the 
claims  of  a  dozen  abbeys  to  possession  of  the  verita- 
ble crown  of  thorns  wherewith  the  majesty  of  the 
suffering  Christ  was  mocked,  but  it  was  silenced  be- 
fore the  numerous  fragments  of  his  cross,  since  in- 
genuity has  computed  that  this  must  have  contained 
at  least  one  hundred  and  eighty  million  cubic  mille- 
metres,  whereas  the  total  cubic  volume  of  all  the 
known  rehcs  is  but  five  millions.  "  It  must,"  re- 
marks Gibbon  (Decline  and  Fall,  end  of  chap,  xxviii), 
"  ingeniously  be  confessed  that  the  ministers  of  the 
Catholic  Church  imitated  the  profane  model  which 
they  were  impotent  to  destroy.  The  most  respecta- 
ble bishops  had  persuaded  themselves  that  the  ig^ 
norant  rustics  would  more  cheerfully  renounce  the 
superstitions  of  paganism  if  they  found  some  resem- 
blance, some  compensation,  in  the  bosom  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  religion  of  Constantine  achieved,  in  less 
than  a  century,  the  final  conquest  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, but  the  victors  themselves  were  insensibly  sub- 
dued by  the  arts  of  their  vanquished  rivals." 

Enough  has  been  said  on  a  topic  to  which  promi- 
nence has  been  given  because  it  brings  into  fuller 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  y^ 

relief  the  fact  that  in  a  rehgion  for  which  its  apolo- 
gists claim  divine  origin  and  guidance  "  to  the  end  of 
the  world  "  we  have  the  same  intrusion  of  the  rites 
and  customs  of  lower  cults  which  marks  other  ad- 
vanced faiths.  Hence,  science  and  superstition  being 
deadly  foes,  the  explanation  of  that  hostile  attitude 
toward  inquiry  and  that  dread  of  its  results  which 
marked  Christianity  down  to  modem  times.  While 
the  intrusion  of  corrupting  elements  presents  diffi- 
culties which  the  theory  of  the  supernatural  history 
of  Christianity  alone  creates,  it  accords  with  all  that 
might  be  predicted  of  a  religion  whose  success  was 
due  to  its  early  escape  from  the  narrow  confines  of 
Judaism;  and  to  its  fortunate  contact  with  the  enter- 
prising peoples  to  whom  the  civilization  of  Europe 
and  the  New  World  is  due. 

2,  Frojn  Augustine  to  Lord  Bacon. 
A.  D.  400-A.  D.  1600. 

The  foregoing  slight  outline  of  the  causes  which 
operated  for  centuries  against  the  freedom  of  the 
human  mind  will  render  it  needless  to  follow  the 
history  of  the  development  of  Christian  polity  and 
dogma — the  temporalizing  of  the  one,  and  the  crys- 
tallizing of  the  other.  Yet  one  prominent  actor  in 
that  history  demands  a  brief  notice,  because  of  the 
influence  which  his  teaching  wielded  from  the  fifth 
to  the  fifteenth  centuries.  The  annals  of  the  churches 
in  Africa,  along  whose  northern  shores  Christianity 
had  spread  early  and  rapidly,  yield  notable  names, 


74  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

but  none  so  distinguished  as  that  of  Augustine, 
Bishop  of  Hippo  from  395  to  430  a.  d.  This  greatest 
of  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  sought,  as  has  been 
remarked  already,  to  bring  the  system  of  Aristotle, 
the  greatest  of  ancient  naturalists,  into  line  with 
Christian  theology.  His  range  of  study  was  well- 
nigh  as  wide  as  that  of  the  famous  Stagirite,  but 
we  are  here  concerned  only  with  so  much  of  it  as 
bears  on  an  attempt  to  graft  the  development  theory 
on  the  dogma  of  special  creation,  Augustine,  ac- 
cepting the  Old  Testament  cosmogony  as  a  revela- 
tion, believed  that  the  world  was  created  out  of  noth- 
ing, but,  this  initial  paradox  accepted,  he  argued 
that  God  had  endowed  matter  with  certain  powers 
of  self-development  which  left  free  the  operation  of 
natural  causes  in  the  production  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals. With  this,  however,  as  already  noted,  he  held, 
with  preceding  philosophers  and  with  his  fellow- 
theologians,  the  doctrine  of  spontaneous  generation. 
It  explained  to  him  the  existence  of  apparently  pur- 
poseless creatures,  as  flies,  frogs,  mice,  etc.  "  Cer- 
tain very  small  animals,"  he  says,  "  may  not  have 
been  created  on  the  fifth  and  sixth  days,  but  may 
have  originated  later  from  putrefying  matter."  Not 
till  the  seventeenth  century  did  the  experiments  of 
Redi  refute  a  doctrine  which  had  held  part  of  the 
biological  field  for  above  two  thousand  years,  and 
which  still  has  adherents.  Of  course  Augustine,  as 
do  modern  CathoHc  biologists,  excepted  man  from 
the  operation  of  secondary  causes,  and  held  that  his 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  yt 

soul  was  created  by  the  direct  intervention  of  the 
Creator.  Augustine's  concessions  are,  therefore, 
more  seeming  than  real,  and,  moreover,  we  find  him 
denying  the  existence  of  the  antipodes  on  the  ground 
that  Scripture  is  silent  about  them,  and  also,  that  if 
God  had  placed  any  races  there,  they  could  not  see 
Christ  descending  at  his  second  coming.  To  Augus- 
tine the  air  was  full  of  devils  who  are  the  cause  of 
"  all  diseases  of  Christians."  In  other  words,  he  was 
not  ahead  of  the  illusions  of  his  age.  Then,  too, 
he  shows  that  allegorizing  spirit  which  was  manifest 
in  Greece  a  thousand  years  earlier;  the  spirit  which 
reads  hidden  meanings  in  Homer,  in  Horace,  and  in 
Omar  Khayyam;  and  which,  in  the  hands  of  present- 
day  Gnostics,  mostly  fantastic  or  illiterate  cabalists, 
converts  the  plain  narratives  of  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments into  vehicles  of  mysterious  types  and  esoteric 
symbols.  It  is  in  such  allegorical  vein  that  Augus- 
tine explains  the  outside  and  inside  pitching  of  the 
ark  as  typifying  the  safety  of  the  Church  from  the 
leaking-in  of  heresy;  while  the  ghastly  application 
of  symbolical  exegetics  is  seen  in  his  citation  of  the 
words  of  Jesus,  "  Compel  them  to  come  in,"  as  a  Di- 
vine warrant  for  the  slaughter  of  heretics. 

We  shall  meet  with  no  other  such  commanding 
figure  in  Church  history  till  nine  hundred  years  have 
passed,  when  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  "  Angel  of  the 
Schools,"  appears,  but  although  that  period  marks 
no  advance  of  the  Church  from  her  central  position, 
it  witnessed  changes  in  her  fortune  through  the  in- 


76 


PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 


trusion  of  a  strange  people  into  her  territory  and 
sanctuaries. 

Perhaps  there  are  few  events  in  history  more 
impressive  than  the  conversion  of  the  wild  and  ig- 
norant Arab  tribes  of  the  seventh  century  from  stone- 
worship  to  monotheism.  The  series  of  conquests 
which  followed  had  also,  as  an  indirect  and  unfore- 
seen result,  effects  of  vast  importance  in  the  revival 
and  spread  of  Greek  culture  from  the  Tigris  to  the 
Guadalquivir.  It  is  not  easy,  neither  does  the  in- 
quiry fall  within  our  present  purpose,  to  discover  the 
special  impulses  which  led  Mohammed,  the  leader 
of  the  movement,  to  preach  a  new  faith  whose  one 
creed,  stripped  of  all  subtleties,  was  the  unity  of  God. 
Large  numbers  of  Jews  and  Christians  had  settled 
in  Arabia  long  before  his  time,  and  he  had  become 
acquainted  with  the  narrowness  of  the  one,  and  with 
the  causes  of  the  wranglings  of  the  other,  riven,  as 
these  last-named  were,  into  sects  quarrelling  over 
the  nature  of  the  Person  of  Christ.  These,  and  the 
fetichism  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  may,  perhaps, 
have  impelled  him  to  start  a  crusade  the  mandate 
for  which  he,  in  fanatic  impulse,  believed  came  from 
heaven.  The  result  is  well  known.  The  hitherto 
untamed  nomads  became  the  eager  instruments  of 
the  prophet.  Under  his  leadership,  and  that  of  the 
able  Khalifs  who  succeeded  him,  the  flag  of  Islam 
was  carried  from  East  to  West,  till  within  one  hun- 
dred years  of  the  flight  of  Mohammed  from  Mecca 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  'j^j 

(622  A.  D.)  it  waved  from  the  Indian  Ocean  to  the 
iVtlantic.  With  the  conquest  of  Syria  there  was 
achieved  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  momentous  of 
triumphs  in  the  capture  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  seiz- 
ure of  sites  sanctified  to  Christians  by  association 
with  the  crucifixion,  burial,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus. 
Only  a  few  years  before  (614  a.  d.),  the  holy  city  had 
been  taken  by  Chosroes;  the  sacred  buildings  raised 
over  the  venerated  tomb  had  been  burned,  and  the 
cross — a  spurious  relic — carried  off  by  the  Persian 
king.  These  places  have  been,  as  it  were,  the  cockpit 
of  Christendom  from  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Jeru- 
salem under  Titus  to  that  of  the  Crimean  war,  when 
blood  was  spilt  like  water  in  a  conflict  stirred  by 
squabbles  between  Latin  and  Greek  Christians  over 
possession  of  the  key  of  the  Church  of  the  Nativity 
at  Bethlehem.  In  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
these  sectaries  are  still  kept  from  flying  at  one  an- 
other's throats  by  the  muskets  of  Mohammedan  sol- 
diers. 

The  Arabian  conquest  of  Persia  followed  that  of 
Syria.  The  turn  of  Egypt  soon  came,  the  city  of 
Alexandria  being  taken  in  640,  seven  years  after 
the  prophets'  death.  Since  the  loss  of  Greek  free- 
dom, and  the  decay  of  intellectual  Hfe  at  Athens, 
that  renowned  place  had  become,  notably  under  the 
Ptolemies,  the  chief  home  of  science  and  philosophy. 
Through  the  propagandism  of  Christianity  among 
the  Hellenized  Jews,  of  whom,  as  of  Greeks,  large 
numbers  had  settled  there,  it  was  also  the  birthplace 


78  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

of  dogmatic  theology,  and,  therefore,  the  fountain 
whence  welled  the  controversies  whose  logomachies 
were  the  gossip  of  the  streets  of  Constantinople  and 
the  cause  of  bloody  persecution.  After  a  few  years' 
pause,  the  Saracens  (Ar.,  sharkiin,  orientals)  resumed 
their  conquering  march.  They  captured  and  burnt 
Carthage,  another  famous  centre  of  Christianity,  and 
then  crossed  over  to  Spain.  In  "  the  fair  and  fertile 
isle  of  Andalusia "  the  Gothic  king  Roderick  was 
aroused  from  his  luxurious  life  in  Toledo  to  lead  his 
army  in  gallant,  but  vain,  attempt  to  repel  the  in- 
fidel invaders.  So  rapid  was  their  advance  that  in 
six  years  they  had  subdued  the  whole  of  Spain,  the 
north  and  northwestern  portions  excepted,  for  the 
hardy  Basque  mountaineers  maintained  their  inde- 
pendence against  the  Arabs,  as  they  had  maintained 
it  against  Celt,  Roman,  and  Goth.  Only  before  the 
walls  of  Tours  did  the  invaders  meet  with  a  rebuff 
from  Charles  Martel  and  his  Franks,  which  arrested 
their  advance  in  Western  Europe;  as,  in  a  more  mo- 
mentous defeat  before  Constantinople  by  Leo  III. 
in  718,  fourteen  years  earlier,  the  torrent  of  Moham- 
medan conquest  was  first  checked. 

Enough,  however,  of  Saracenic  wars  and  their 
destructive  work,  which,  if  tradition  Hes  not,  in- 
cluded the  burning  of  the  remnants  of  the  vast 
Alexandrian  library.  "  A  revealed  dogma  is  always 
opposed  to  the  free  research  that  may  contradict  it," 
and  Islam  has  ever  been  a  worse  foe  to  science  than 
Christianity.     Its  association,  as  a  religion,  with  the 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  yg 

renaissance  of  knowledge,  was  as  wholly  accidental 
as  the  story  of  it  is  interesting. 

Under  the  Sassanian  kings,  Persia  had  become  an 
active  centre  of  intellectual  life,  reaching  the  climax 
of  its  Augustan  age  in  the  reign  of  Chosroes.  Jew, 
Greek,  and  Christian  alike  had  welcome  at  his  court, 
and  translations  of  the  writings  of  the  Indian  sages 
completed  the  eclecticism  of  that  enlightened  mon- 
arch. Then  came  the  ruthless  Arab,  and  philosophy 
and  science  were  eclipsed.  But  with  the  advent  of 
the  Abbaside  Khalifs,  who  number  the  famous 
Haroun  al-Raschid  among  them,  there  came  revival 
of  the  widest  toleration,  and  consequent  return  of 
intellectual  activity.  Baghdad  arose  as  the  seat  of 
empire.  Situated  on  the  high  road  of  Oriental  com- 
merce, along  which  travelled  foreign  ideas  and  for- 
eign culture,  that  city  became  also  the  Oxford  of  her 
time.  Arabic  was  the  language  of  the  conquerors, 
and  into  that  poetic,  but  unphilosophic,  tongue, 
Greek  philosophy  and  science  were  rendered.  Under 
the  rule  of  those  Khalifs,  says  Renan,  "  nontolerant, 
nonreluctant  persecutors,"  free  thought  developed; 
the  Motecallenim  or  "  disputants  "  held  debates,  where 
all  religions  were  examined  in  the  light  of  reason. 
Aristotle,  EucHd,  Galen,  and  Ptolemy  were  text- 
books in  the  colleges,  the  repute  of  whose  teachers 
brought  to  Baghdad  and  Naishapur  (dear  to  lovers 
of  "  old  "  Khayyam)  students  westward  from  Spain, 
and  eastward  from  Transoxiana. 

"Arab"  philosophy,  therefore,  is  only  a  name. 


8o  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

It  has  been  well  described  as  "  a  system  of  Greek 
thought  expressed  in  a  Semitic  tongue;  and  modified 
by  Oriental  influences  called  into  existence  by  the 
patronage  of  the  more  liberal  princes,  and  kept  alive 
by  the  zeal  of  a  small  band  of  thinkers."  In  the 
main,  it  began  and  ended  with  the  study  of  Aristotle, 
commentaries  on  whom  became  the  chief  work  of 
scholars,  at  whose  head  stands  the  great  name  of 
Averroes.  Through  these — a  handful  of  Jews  and 
Moslems — knowledge  of  Greek  science,  of  astrono- 
my, algebra,  chemistry,  and  medicine,  was  carried 
into  Western  Europe.  By  the  latter  half  of  the  tenth 
century,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  trans- 
lation of  Aristotle  into  Arabic,  Spain  had  become 
no  mean  rival  of  Baghdad  and  Cairo.  Schools  were 
founded;  colleges  to  which  the  Girton  girls  of  the 
period  could  repair  to  learn  mathematics  and  history 
were  set  up  by  lady  principals;  manufactures  and 
agriculture  were  encouraged;  and  lovely  and  stately 
palaces  and  mosques  beautified  Seville,  Cordova,  To- 
ledo, and  Granada,  which  last-named  city  the  far- 
famed  Alhamra  or  Red  Fortress  still  overlooks. 
Seven  hundred  years  before  there  was  a  public  lamp 
in  London,  and  when  Paris  was  a  town  of  swampy 
roadways  bordered  by  windowless  dwellings,  Cor- 
dova had  miles  of  well-lighted,  well-paved  streets; 
and  the  constant  use  of  the  bath  by  the  "  infidel " 
contrasted  with  the  saintly  filth  and  rags  which  were 
the  pride  of  flesh-mortifying  devotees  and  the  out- 
ward and  odorous  signs  of  their  religion.    The  pages 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  gl 

of  our  dictionaries  evidence  in  familiar  mathematical 
and  chemical  terms;  in  the  names  of  the  principal 
''fixed"  stars;  and  in  the  words  "admiral"  and 
"  chemise  ";  the  influence  of  the  "  Arab"  in  science, 
war,  and  dress. 

It  forms  no  part  of  our  story  to  tell  how  feuds 
between  rival  dynasties  and  rival  sects  of  Islam, 
becoming  more  acute  as  time  went  on,  enabled  Chris- 
tianity to  recover  lost  ground,  and,  in  the  capture 
of  Granada  in  1492,  to  put  an  end  to  Moorish  rule 
in  Spain.  Before  that  event,  a  knowledge  of  Greek 
philosophy  had  been  diffused  through  Christendom 
by  the  translation  of  the  works  of  Avicenna,  Aver- 
roes,  and  other  scholars,  into  Latin.  That  was  about 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  Aristotle, 
who  had  been  translated  into  Arabic  some  three  cen- 
turies earlier,  also  appeared  in  Latin  dress.  The 
detachment  of  any  branch  of  knowledge  from  the- 
ology being  a  thing  undreamed  of,  the  deep  rever- 
ence in  which  the  Stagirite  was  held  by  his  Arabian 
commentators  ultimately  led  to  his  becoming  "  sus- 
pect "  by  the  Christians,  since  that  which  approved 
itself  to  the  followers  of  Mohammed  must,  ipso  facto, 
be  condemned  by  the  followers  of  Jesus.  Hence 
came  reaction,  and  recourse  to  the  Scriptures  as  sole 
guide  to  secular  as  well  as  sacred  knowledge;  re- 
course to  a  method  which,  as  Hallam  says,  "  had  not 
untied  a  single  knot,  or  added  one  unequivocal  truth 
to  the  domain  of  philosophy." 

So  far  as  the  scanty  records  tell  (for  we  may 


82  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

never  know  how  much  was  suppressed,  or  fell  into 
oblivion,  under  ecclesiastical  frowns  and  threats; 
nor  how  many  thinkers  toiled  in  secret  and  in  dread), 
none  seemed  possessed  either  of  courage  or  desire  to 
supplement  the  revealed  word  by  examination  into 
things  themselves.  To  supplant  it  was  not  dreamed 
of.  But,  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  one 
notable  exception  occurred  in  the  person  of  Roger 
Bacon,  sometimes  called  Friar  Bacon  in  virtue  of 
his  belonging  to  the  order  of  Franciscans.  He  was 
born  in  1214  at  Ilchester,  in  Somerset,  whence  he 
afterward  removed  to  Oxford,  and  thence  to  Paris. 
That  this  remarkable  and  many-sided  man,  classic 
and  Arabic  scholar,  mathematician,  and  natural  phi- 
losopher, has  not  a  more  recognised  place  in  the  an- 
nals of  science  is  strange,  although  it  is,  perhaps, 
partly  explained  by  the  fact  that  his  writings  were 
not  reissued  for  more  than  three  centuries  after  his 
death.  He  has  been  credited  with  a  number  of  in- 
ventions, his  title  to  which  is  however  doubtful,  al- 
though the  doubt  in  nowise  impairs  the  greatness 
of  his  name.  He  shared  the  current  beHef  in  al- 
chemy, but  made  a  number  of  experiments  in  chem- 
istry pointing  to  his  knowledge  of  the  properties  of 
the  various  gases,  and  of  the  components  of  gun- 
powder. If  he  did  not  invent  spectacles,  or  the 
microscope  and  telescope,  he  was  skilled  in  optics, 
and  knew  the  principles  on  which  those  instruments 
are  made,  as  the  following  extract  from  his  Opus 
Majus   shows:  "We   can   place   transparent   bodies 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  83 

in  such  a  form  and  position  between  our  eyes  and 
other  objects  that  the  rays  shall  be  refracted  and 
bent  toward  any  place  we  please,  so  that  we  shall 
see  the  object  near  at  hand,  or  at  a  distance,  under 
any  angle  we  please;  and  thus  from  an  incredible 
distance  we  may  read  the  smallest  letters,  and  may 
number  the  smallest  particles  of  sand,  by  reason  of 
the  greatness  of  the  angle  under  which  they  appear." 
He  knew  the  "  wisdom  of  the  ancients  "  in  the  cata- 
loguing of  the  stars,  and  suggested  a  reform  of  the 
calendar — following  the  then  unknown  poet-astrono- 
mer of  Naishapur.  But  he  believed  in  astrology,  that 
bastard  science  which  from  remotest  times  had  ruled 
the  life  of  man,  and  which  has  no  small  number  of 
votaries  among  ourselves  to  this  day.  Roger  Bacon's 
abiding  title  to  fame  rests,  however,  on  his  insistence 
on  the  necessity  of  experiment,  and  his  enforcement 
of  this  precept  by  practice.  As  a  mathematician  he 
laid  stress  on  the  application  of  this  "  first  of  all  the 
sciences";  indeed,  as  "preceding  all  others,  and  as 
disposing  us  to  them."  His  experiments,  both  from 
their  nature  and  the  seclusion  in  which  they  were 
made,  laid  him  open  to  the  charge  of  black  magic, 
in  other  words,  of  being  in  league  with  the  devil. 
This,  in  the  hands  of  a  theology  thus  "  possessed," 
became  an  instrument  of  awful  torture  to  mankind. 
Roger  Bacon's  denial  of  magic  only  aggravated  his 
crime,  since  in  ecclesiastical  ears,  this  was  tanta- 
mount to  a  denial  of  the  activity,  nay  more,  of  the 
very  existence  of  Satan.    So,  despite  certain  encour- 


84  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

agement  in  his  scientific  work  from  an  old  friend  who 
afterward  became  Pope  Clement  IV.,  for  whose  in- 
formation he  wrote  his  Opus  Majus,  he  was,  on  the 
death  of  that  potentate,  thrown  into  prison,  whence 
tradition  says  he  emerged,  after  ten  years,  only  to 
die. 

The  theories  of  mediaeval  schoolmen — a  monoto- 
nous record  of  unprogressive  ideas — need  not  be 
scheduled  here,  the  more  so  as  we  approach  the 
period  of  discoveries  momentous  in  their  ultimate 
effect  upon  opinions  which  now  possess  only  the 
value  attaching  to  the  history  of  discredited  con- 
ceptions of  the  universe.  Commerce,  more  than  sci- 
entific curiosity,  gave  the  impetus  to  the  discovery 
that  the  earth  is  a  globe.  Trade  with  the  East  was 
divided  between  Genoa  and  Venice.  These  cities 
were  rivals,  and  the  Genoese,  alarmed  at  the  growing 
success  of  the  Venetians,  resolved  to  try  to  reach 
India  from  the  west.  Their  schemes  were  justified 
by  reports  of  land  indications  brought  by  seamen 
who  had  passed  through  the  "  Pillars  of  Hercules  " 
to  the  Atlantic.  The  sequel  is  well  known.  Colum- 
bus, after  clerical  opposition,  and  rebuffs  from  other 
states,  "  offering,"  as  Mr.  Payne  says,  in  his  excel- 
lent History  of  America,  "  though  he  knew  it  not, 
the  New  World  in  exchange  for  three  ships  and  pro- 
visions for  twelve  months,"  finally  secured  the  sup- 
port of  the  Spanish  king,  and  sailed  from  Cadiz  on 
the  3d  of  August,  1492.  On  nth  of  October  he 
sighted  the  fringes  of  the  New  World,  and  believing 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  85 

that  he  had  sailed  from  Spain  to  India,  gave  the  name 
West  Indies  to  the  island-group.  America  itself  had 
been  discovered  by  roving  Norsemen  five  hundred 
years  before,  but  the  fact  was  buried  in  Icelandic 
tradition.  Following  Columbus,  Vasco  de  Gama,  a 
Portuguese,  set  sail  in  1497,  and  taking  a  southerly 
course,  doubled  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Twenty- 
two  years  later,  Ferdinand  Magellan  started  on  a 
voyage  more  famous  than  that  of  Columbus,  since 
his  ambition  was  to  sail  round  the  world,  and  thus 
complete  the  chain  of  proof  against  the  theory  of  its 
flatness.  For  "  though  the  Church  hath  evermore 
from  Holy  Writ  afidrmed  that  the  earth  should  be  a 
widespread  plain  bordered  by  the  waters,  yet  he 
comforted  himself  when  he  considered  that  in  the 
eclipses  of  the  moon  the  shadow  cast  of  the  earth  is 
round;  and  as  is  the  shadow,  such,  in  like  manner, 
is  the  substance."  Doubling  Cape  Horn  through 
the  straits  that  bear  his  name,  Magellan  entered  the 
vast  ocean  whose  calm  surface  caused  him  to  call  it 
the  Pacific,  and  after  terrible  sufferings,  he  reached 
the  Ladrone  Islands  where,  either  at  the  hands  of  a 
mutinous  crew,  or  of  savages,  he  was  killed.  His 
chief  lieutenant,  Sebastian  d'Eleano,  continued  the 
voyage,  and  after  rounding  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
brought  the  San  Vittoria — name  of  happy  omen — 
to  anchor  at  St.  Lucar,  near  Seville,  on  7th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1522.  Brought,  too,  the  story  of  a  circum- 
navigated globe,  and  of  new  groups  of  stars  never 
seen  under  northern  skies. 


86  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

The  scene  shifts,  for  the  time  being,  from  the  earth 
to  the  heavens.  The  Church  had  barely  recovered 
from  the  blow  struck  at  her  authority  on  matters  of 
secular  knowledge,  when  another  dealt,  and  that 
by  an  ecclesiastic,  Copernicus,  Canon  of  Frauenburg, 
in  Prussia.  But  before  pursuing  this,  some  reference 
to  the  revolt  against  the  Church  of  Rome,  which  is 
the  great  event  of  the  sixteenth  century,  is  necessary, 
if  only  to  inquire  whether  the  movement  known  as 
the  Reformation  justified  its  name  as  freeing  the 
intellect  from  theological  thraldom.  Far-reaching 
as  were  the  areas  which  it  covered  and  the  effects 
which  it  wrought,  its  quarrel  with  the  Church  of 
Rome  was  not  because  of  that  Church's  attitude  to- 
ward freedom  of  thought.  On  the  Continent  it  was 
a  protest  of  nobler  minds  against  the  corruptions 
fostered  by  the  Papacy;  in  England,  it  was  personal 
and  political  in  origin,  securing  popular  support  by 
its  anti-sacerdotal  character,  and  its  appeal  to  na- 
tional irritation  against  foreign  control.  But,  both 
here  and  abroad,  it  sought  mending  rather  than  end- 
ing; "  not  to  vary  in  any  jot  from  the  faith  Catholic." 
It  disputed  the  claim  of  the  Church  to  be  the  sole 
interpreter  of  Scripture,  and  contended  that  such 
interpretation  was  the  right  and  duty  of  the  indi- 
vidual. But  it  would  not  admit  the  right  of  the 
individual  to  call  in  question  the  authority  of  the 
Bible  itself:  to  that  book  alone  must  a  man  go  for 
knowledge  of  things  temporal  as  of  things  spiritual. 
So  that  the  Reformation  was  but  an  exchange  of 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  g/ 

fetters,  or,  as  Huxley  happily  puts  it,  the  scraping 
of  a  little  rust  off  the  chains  which  still  bound  the 
mind.  ''  Learning  perished  where  Luther  reigned," 
Baid  Erasmus,  and  in  proof  of  it  we  find  the  Re- 
former agreeing  with  his  coadjutor,  Melanchthon,  in 
permitting  no  tampering  with  the  written  Word. 
Copernicus  notwithstanding,  they  had  no  doubt  that 
the  earth  was  fixed  and  that  sun  and  stars  travelled 
round  it,  because  the  Bible  said  so.  Peter  Martyr, 
one  of  the  early  Lutheran  converts,  in  his  Com- 
mentary on  Genesis,  declared  that  wrong  opinions 
about  the  creation  as  narrated  in  that  book  would 
render  valueless  all  the  promises  of  Christ.  Wherein 
he  spoke  truly.  As  for  the  schoolmen,  Luther  called 
them  "  locusts,  caterpillars,  frogs,  and  lice."  Rea- 
son he  denounced  as  the  "  arch  whore "  and  the 
"  devil's  bride,"  Aristotle  is  a  "  prince  of  darkness, 
horrid  impostor,  public  and  professed  liar,  beast,  and 
twice  execrable."  Consistently  enough,  Luther  be- 
lieved vehemently  in  a  personal  devil,  and  in  witches; 
"  I  would  myself  burn  them,"  he  says,  "  even  as  it  is 
written  in  the  Bible  that  the  priests  stoned  offenders." 
To  him  demoniacal  possession  was  a  fact  clear  as 
noonday:  idiocy,  lunacy,  epilepsy  and  all  other  men- 
tal and  nervous  disorders  were  due  to  it.  Hence, 
a  movement  whose  intent  appeared  to  be  the  free- 
ing of  the  human  spirit  riveted  more  tightly  the 
bolts  that  imprisoned  it;  arresting  the  physical  ex- 
planation of  mental  diseases  and  that  curative  treat- 
ment of  them  which  is  one  of  the  countless  services 


38  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

of  science  to  suffering  mankind.  To  Luther,  the 
descent  of  Christ  into  hell,  which  modern  research 
has  shown  to  be  a  variant  of  an  Orphic  legend  of 
the  underworld,  was  a  real  event,  Jesus  going  thither 
that  he  might  conquer  Satan  in  a  hand-to-hand 
struggle. 

Therefore,  freedom  of  thought,  as  we  define  it, 
had  the  bitterest  foe  in  Luther,  although,  in  his  con- 
demnation of  "  works,"  and  his  fanatical  dogma  of 
man's  "  justification  by  faith  alone,"  which  made 
him  reject  the  Epistle  of  James  as  one  "  of  straw," 
and  as  unworthy  of  a.  place  in  the  Canon,  he  unwit- 
tingly drove  in  the  thin  end  of  the  rationalist  wedge. 
The  Reformers  had  hedged  the  canonical  books  with 
theories  of  verbal  inspiration  which  extended  even 
to  the  punctuation  of  the  sentences.  They  thus  ren- 
dered intelligent  study  of  the  Bible  impossible,  and 
did  grievous  injury  to  a  collection  of  writings  of  vast 
historical  value,  and  of  abiding  interest  as  records 
of  man's  primitive  speculations  and  spiritual  devel- 
opment. But  Luther's  application  of  the  right  of 
private  judgment  to  the  omission  or  addition  of  this 
or  that  book  into  a  canon  which  had  been  closed  by 
a  Council  of  the  Church,  surrendered  the  whole  posi- 
tion, since  there  was  no  telling  where  the  thing  might 
stop. 

Copernicus  waited  full  thirty  years  before  he  ven- 
tured to  make  his  theory  pubHc.  The  Ptolemaic 
system,  which  assumed  a  fixed  earth  with  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  revolving  above  it,  had  held  the  field  for 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  gg 

about  fourteen  hundred  years.  It  accorded  with 
Scripture ;  it  was  adopted  by  the  Church ;  and,  more- 
over, it  was  confirmed  by  the  senses,  the  correc- 
tion of  which  still  remains,  and  will  long  remain,  a 
condition  of  intellectual  advance.  Little  wonder  is 
it,  then,  that  Copernicus  hesitated  to  broach  a  theory 
thus  supported,  or  that,  when  pubHshed,  it  was  put 
forth  in  tentative  form  as  a  possible  explanation 
more  in  accord  with  the  phenomena.  A  preface, 
presumably  by  a  friendly  hand,  commended  the 
Revolutions  of  the  Heavenly  Bodies  to  Pope  Paul 
III.  It  urged  that  "  as  in  previous  times  others  had 
been  allowed  the  privilege  of  feigning  what  circles 
they  chose  in  order  to  explain  the  phenomena,"  Co- 
pernicus "  had  conceived  that  he  might  take  the  lib- 
erty of  trying  whether,  on  the  supposition  of  the 
earth's  motion,  it  was  possible  to  find  better  explana- 
tions than  the  ancient  ones  of  the  revolutions  of  the 
celestial  orbs."  A  copy  of  the  book  was  placed  in 
the  hands  of  its  author  only  a  few  hours  before  his 
death  on  23d  of  May,  1543. 

This  "  upstart  astrologer,"  this  "  fool  who  wishes 
to  reverse  the  entire  science  of  astronomy,"  for 
"  sacred  Scripture  tells  us  that  Joshua  commanded 
the  sun  to  stand  still,  and  not  the  earth  " — these  are 
Luther's  words — was,  therefore,  beyond  the  grip  of 
the  Holy  Inquisition.  But  a  substitute  was  forth- 
coming. Giordano  Bruno,  a  Dominican  monk,  had 
added  to  certain  heterodox  beliefs  the  heresy  of  Co- 
pernicanism,  which  he  publicly  taught  from  Oxford 
7 


90 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


to  Venice.  For  these  cumulative  crimes  he  was  im- 
prisoned and,  after  two  years,  condemned  to  be  put 
to  death  "  as  mercifully  as  possible  and  without  the 
shedding  of  his  blood,"  a  Catholic  euphemism  for 
burning  a  man  alive.  The  murder  was  committed 
in  Rome  on  17th  of  February,  1600. 

The  year  1543  marks  an  epoch  in  biology  as  in 
astronomy.  As  shown  in  the  researches  of  Galen, 
an  Alexandrian  physician  of  the  second  century, 
there  had  been  no  difficulty  in  studying  the  struc- 
ture of  the  lower  animals,  but,  fortified  both  by  tradi- 
tion and  by  prejudice,  the  Church  refused  to  permit 
dissection  of  the  human  body,  and  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  Boniface  VIII.  issued  a 
Bull  of  the  major  excommunication  against  offend- 
ers. Prohibition,  as  usual,  led  to  evasion,  and  Ve- 
salius.  Professor  of  Anatomy  in  Padua  University, 
resorted  to  various  devices  to  procure  "  subjects," 
the  bodies  of  criminals  being  easiest  to  obtain.  The 
end  justified  the  means,  as  he  was  able  to  correct 
certain  errors  of  Galen,  and  to  give  the  quietus  to 
the  old  legend,  based  upon  the  myth  of  the  creation 
of  Eve,  that  man  has  one  rib  less  than  woman.  This 
was  among  the  discoveries  announced  in  his  De  Cor- 
poris Humani  Fabrica,  published  when  he  was  only 
twenty-eight  years  of  age.  The  book  fell  under  the 
ban  of  the  Church  because  Vesalius  gave  no  support 
to  the  belief  in  an  indestructible  bone,  nucleus  of 
the  resurrection  body,  in  man.  The  belief  had,  no 
doubt,  near  relation  to  that  of  the  Jews  in  the  os 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY. 


91 


sacru,  and  may  remind  us  of  Descartes'  fanciful  loca- 
tion of  the  soul  in  the  minute  cone-like  part  of  the 
brain  known  as  the  conarium,  or  pineal  gland.  On 
some  baseless  charge  of  attempting  the  dissection  of 
a  living  subject,  the  Inquisition  haled  Vesalius  to 
prison,  and  would  have  put  him  to  death  "  as  merci- 
fully as  possible,"  but  for  the  intervention  of  King 
Charles  V.  of  Spain,  to  whom  Vesalius  had  been 
physician.  Returning  in  October,  1564,  from  a  pil- 
grimage taken,  presumably,  as  atonement  for  his 
alleged  offence,  he  was  shipwrecked  on  the  coast  of 
Zante,  and  died  of  exhaustion. 

While  the  heretical  character  and  tendencies  of 
discoveries  in  astronomy  and  anatomy  awoke  active 
opposition  from  the  Church,  the  work  of  men  of  the 
type  of  Gesner,  the  eminent  Swiss  naturalist,  and  of 
Caesalpino,  professor  of  botany  at  Padua,  passed 
unquestioned.  No  dogma  was  endangered  by  the 
classification  of  plants  and  animals.  But  when  a 
couple  of  generations  after  the  death  of  Copernicus 
had  passed,  the  Inquisition  found  a  second  victim 
in  the  famous  Galileo,  who  was  born  at  Pisa  in  1 564. 
After  spending  some  years  in  mechanical  and  mathe- 
matical pursuits,  he  began  a  series  of  observations 
in  confirmation  of  the  Copernican  theory,  of  the  truth 
of  which  he  had  been  convinced  in  early  life.  With 
the  aid  of  a  rude  telescope,  made  by  his  own  hands, 
he  discovered  the  satellites  of  Jupiter;  the  moon- 
like phases  of  Venus  and  Mars;  mountains  and  val- 
leys in  the  moon;  spots  on  the  sun's  disk;  and  the 


92 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


countless  stars  which  composed  the  luminous  band 
known  as  the  Milky  Way.  Nought  occurred  to 
disturb  his  observations  till,  in  a  work  on  the  Solar 
Spots,  he  explained  the  movements  of  the  earth  and 
of  the  heavenly  bodies  according  to  Copernicus.  On 
the  appearance  of  that  book  the  authorities  contented 
themselves  with  a  caution  to  the  author.  But  action 
followed  his  supplemental  Dialogue  on  the  Coperni- 
can  and  Ptolemaic  Systems.  Through  that  conven- 
ient medium  which  the  title  implies,  Galileo  makes 
the  defender  of  the  Copernican  theory  an  easy  victor, 
and  for  this  he  was  brought  before  the  Inquisition 
in  1633.  After  a  tedious  trial,  and  threats  of  "  rigor- 
ous personal  examination,"  a  euphemism  for  "  tor- 
ture," he  was,  despite  the  plea — too  specious  to  de- 
ceive— that  he  had  merely  put  the  pros  and  cons  as 
between  the  rival  theories,  condemned  to  abjure  all 
that  he  had  taught.  There  is  a  story,  probably  ficti- 
tious, since  it  was  first  told  in  1789,  that  when  the 
old  man  rose  from  his  knees,  he  muttered  his  convic- 
tion that  the  earth  moves,  in  the  words  "  e  pur  si 
muove."  As  a  sample  of  the  arguments  used  by 
the  ecclesiastics  when  they  substituted,  as  rare  ex- 
ception, the  pen  for  the  faggot,  the  reasoning  ad- 
vanced by  one  Sizzi  against  the  existence  of  Jupiter's 
moons,  may  be  cited.  "  There  are  seven  windows 
given  to  animals  in  the  domicile  of  the  head,  through 
which  the  air  is  admitted  to  the  tabernacle  of  the 
body,  viz.:  two  nostrils,  two  eyes,  two  ears,  and  one 
mouth.     So,  in  the  heavens,  as  in  a  macrocosm,  or 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  ^3 

great  world,  there  are  two  favourable  stars,  Jupiter 
and  Venus;  two  unpropitious.  Mars  and  Saturn; 
two  luminaries,  the  sun  and  moon,  and  Mercury 
alone  undecided  and  indifferent.  From  these  and 
many  other  phenomena  of  Nature,  which  it  were 
tedious  to  enumerate,  we  gather  that  the  number  of 
planets  is  necessarily  seven.  Moreover,  the  satel- 
lites are  invisible  to  the  naked  eye,  and,  therefore, 
can  exercise  no  influence  over  the  earth,  and  would, 
of  course,  be  useless;  and,  therefore,  do  not  exist." 
In  this  brief  summary  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Church  toward  science,  it  is  not  possible,  and  if  it 
were  so,  it  is  not  needful,  to  refer  in  detail  to  the 
contributions  of  the  more  speculative  philosophers, 
who,  although  they  made  no  discoveries,  advocated 
those  methods  of  research  and  directions  of  inquiry 
which  made  the  discoveries  possible.  Among  these 
a  prominent  name  is  that  of  Lord  Bacon,  whose 
system  of  philosophy,  known  as  the  Inductive,  pro- 
ceeds from  the  collection,  examination  and  compari- 
son of  any  group  of  connected  facts  to  the  relation 
of  them  to  some  general  principle.  The  universal 
is  thus  explained  by  the  particular.  But  the  inductive 
method  was  no  invention  of  Bacon's;  wherever  ob- 
servation or  testing  of  a  thing  preceded  speculation 
about  it,  as  with  his  greater  namesake,  there  the 
Baconian  system  had  its  application.  Lord  Bacon, 
moreover,  undervalued  Greek  science;  he  argued 
against  the  Copernican  theory;  and  either  knew 
nothing  of,  or  ignored,  Harvey's  momentous  discov- 


Q4  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

ery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  A  more  illustrious 
name  than  his  is  that  of  Rene  Descartes,  a  man  who 
combined  theory  with  observation;  *'  one  who,"  in 
Huxley's  words,  "  saw  that  the  discoveries  of  Galileo 
meant  that  the  remotest  parts  of  the  universe  were 
governed  by  mechanical  laws,  while  those  of  Harvey 
meant  that  the  same  laws  presided  over  the  opera- 
tions of  that  portion  of  the  world  which  is  nearest  to 
us,  namely,  our  own  bodily  frame."  The  greatness 
of  this  man,  a  good  Catholic,  whom  the  Jesuits 
charged  with  Atheism,  has  no  mean  tribute  in  his 
influence  on  an  equally  remarkable  man,  Benedict 
Spinoza.  Spinoza  reduced  the  Cartesian  analysis  of 
phenomena  into  God,  mind  and  matter  to  one  phe- 
nomenon, namely,  God,  of  whom  matter  and  spirit, 
extension  and  thought,  are  but  attributes.  His  short 
life  fell  within  the  longer  span  of  Newton's,  whose 
strange  subjection  to  the  theological  influences  of 
his  age  is  seen  in  this  immortal  interpreter  of  the 
laws  of  the  universe  wasting  his  later  years  on  an 
attempt  to  interpret  unfulfilled  prophecy.  These  and 
others,  as  Locke,  Leibnitz,  Herder,  and  Schelling, 
like  the  great  Hebrew  leader,  had  glimpses  of  a 
goodly  land  which  they  were  not  themselves  to 
enter.  But,  perhaps,  in  the  roll  of  illustrious  men 
to  whom  prevision  came,  none  have  better  claim  to 
everlasting  remembrance  than  Immanuel  Kant.  For 
in  his  Theory  of  the  Heavens,  published  in  1755,  he 
anticipates  that  hypothesis  of  the  origin  of  the  pres- 
ent universe  which,  associated  with  the  succeeding 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY,  g^ 

names  of  Laplace  and  Herschel,  has,  under  correc- 
tions furnished  by  modern  physics,  common  accept- 
ance among  us.  Then,  as  shown  in  the  following 
extract,  Kant  foresees  the  theory  of  the  development 
of  life  from  formless  stufif  to  the  highest  types:  "  It 
is  desirable  to  examine  the  great  domain  of  organized 
beings  by  means  of  a  methodical  comparative  anato- 
my, in  order  to  discover  whether  we  may  not  find 
in  them  something  resembling  a  system,  and  that 
too  in  connection  with  their  mode  of  generation,  so 
that  we  may  not  be  compelled  to  stop  short  with  a 
mere  consideration  of  forms  as  they  are — which  gives 
no  insight  into  their  generation — and  need  not  des- 
pair of  gaining  a  full  insight  into  this  department  of 
Nature.  The  agreement  of  so  many  kinds  of  animals 
in  a  certain  common  plan  of  structure,  which  seems 
to  be  visible  not  only  in  their  skeletons,  but  also  in 
the  arrangement  of  the  other  parts — so  that  a  won- 
derfully simple  typical  form,  by  the  shortening  or 
lengthening  of  some  parts,  and  by  the  suppression 
and  development  of  others,  might  be  able  to  produce 
an  immense  variety  of  species — gives  us  a  ray  of 
hope,  though  feeble,  that  here  perhaps  some  results 
may  be  obtained,  by  the  application  of  the  principle 
of  the  mechanism  of  Nature;  without  which,  in  fact, 
no  science  can  exist.  This  analogy  of  forms  (in  so 
far  as  they  seem  to  have  been  produced  in  accordance 
with  a  common  prototype,  notwithstanding  their 
great  variety)  strengthens  the  supposition  that  they 
have  an  actual  blood-relationship,  due  to  derivation 


96 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


from  a  common  parent;  a  supposition  which  is  ar- 
rived at  by  observation  of  the  graduated  approxi- 
mation of  one  class  of  animals  to  another,  beginning 
with  the  one  in  which  the  principle  of  purposiveness 
seems  to  be  most  conspicuous,  namely,  man,  and  ex- 
tending down  to  the  polyps,  and  from  these  even 
down  to  mosses  and  lichens,  and  arriving  finally  at 
raw  matter,  the  lowest  stage  of  Nature  observable 
by  us.  From  this  raw  matter  and  its  forces,  the 
whole  apparatus  of  Nature  seems  to  have  been  de- 
rived according  to  mechanical  laws  (such  as  those 
which  resulted  in  the  production  of  crystals) ;  yet  this 
apparatus,  as  seen  in  organic  beings,  is  so  incom- 
prehensible to  us,  that  we  feel  ourselves  compelled  to 
conceive  for  it  a  different  principle.  But  it  would 
seem  that  the  archaeologist  of  Nature  is  at  liberty  to 
regard  the  great  Family  of  creatures  (for  as  a  Family 
we  must  conceive  it,  if  the  above-mentioned  continu- 
ous and  connected  relationship  has  a  real  foundation) 
as  having  sprung  from  their  immediate  results  of  her 
earliest  revolutions,  judging  from  all  the  laws  of 
their  mechanisms  known  to  or  conjectured  by  him." 
In  our  arrival  at  the  age  of  these  seers,  we  feel 
the  play  of  a  freer,  purer  air;  a  lull  in  the  miasmatic 
currents  that  bring  intolerance  on  their  wings.  The 
tolerance  that  approaches  is  due  to  no  surrender  of 
its  main  position  by  dogmatic  theology,  but  to  that 
larger  perception  of  the  variety  and  complexity  of 
life,  ignorance  of,  or  wilful  blindness  to,  which  is  the 
secret  of  the  survival  of  rigid  opinion.    The  demon- 


THE  ARREST  OF  INQUIRY.  gy 

stration  of  the  earth's  roundness;  the  discovery  of 
America;  the  growing  conception  of  inter-relation 
between  the  lowest  and  the  highest  life-forms;  the 
slow  but  sure  acceptance  of  the  Copernican  theory; 
and,  above  all,  the  idea  of  a  Cosmos,  an  unbroken 
order,  to  which  every  advance  in  knowledge  con- 
tributes, justified  and  fostered  the  free  play  of  the 
intellect.  Foreign  as  yet,  however,  to  the  minds  of 
widest  breadth,  was  the  conception  of  the  inclusion 
of  Man  himself  in  the  universal  order.  Duality — 
Nature  overruled  by  supernature — was  the  unaltered 
note;  the  supernature  as  part  of  Nature  a  thing  un- 
dreamed of.  Nor  could  it  be  otherwise  while  the 
belief  in  diabolical  agencies  still  held  the  field,  send- 
ing wretched  victims  to  the  stake  on  the  evidence 
of  conscientious  witnesses,  and  with  the  concurrence 
of  humane  judges.  Animism,  the  root  of  all  per- 
sonification, whether  of  good  or  evil,  had  lost  none 
of  its  essential  character,  and  but  little  of  its  vigour. 
"  I  flatter  myself,"  says  Hume,  in  the  opening 
words  of  the  essay  upon  Miracles,  in  his  Inquiry 
Concerning  Human  Understanding,  "  that  I  have 
discovered  an  argument  of  a  like  nature  (he  is  refer- 
ring to  Archbishop  Tillotson's  argument  on  Tran- 
substantiation)  which,  if  just,  will,  with  the  wise  and 
learned,  be  an  everlasting  check  to  all  kind  of  super- 
stitious delusion,  and,  consequently,  will  be  useful 
as  long  as  the  world  endures."  Hume  certainly  did 
not  overrate  the  force  of  the  blow  which  he  dealt  at 
supernaturalism,  one  of  a  series  of  attacks  which,  in 


gS  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

France  and  Britain,  carried  the  war  into  the  camp 
of  the  enemy,  and  changed  its  tactics  from  aggressive 
to  defensive.  But  none  the  less  is  it  true  that  the 
*'  superstitious  delusions  "  against  which  he  planted 
his  logical  artillery  were  killed  neither  by  argument 
nor  by  evidence.  Delusion  and  error  do  not  perish 
by  controversial  warfare.  They  perish  under  the 
slow  and  silent  operation  of  changes  to  which  they 
are  unable  to  adapt  themselves.  The  atmosphere  is 
altered:  the  organism  can  neither  respond  nor  re- 
spire; therefore,  it  dies.  Thus,  save  where  lurks  the 
ignorance  which  is  its  breath  of  life,  has  wholly  per- 
ished belief  in  witchcraft;  thus,  too,  is  slowly  perish- 
ing belief  in  miracles,  and,  with  this,  belief  in  the 
miraculous  events,  the  incarnation,  resurrection,  and 
ascension  of  Jesus,  on  which  the  fundamental  tenets 
of  Christianity  are  based,  and  in  which  lies  so  largely 
the  secret  of  its  long  hostility  to  knowledge. 


PART  III. 

THE   RENASCENCE   OF   SCIENCE. 

A.  D.  1600  ONWARDS. 

"  Though  science,  like  Nature,  may  be  driven  out  with  a  fork, 
ecclesiastical  or  other,  yet  she  surely  comes  back  again." — 
Huxley,  Prologue  to  Collected  Essays,  vol.  v. 

The  exercise  of  a  more  tolerant  spirit,  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  had  its  Hmits.  It  is  true 
that  Dr.  South,  a  famous  divine,  denounced  the 
Royal  Society  (founded  1645)  ^s  an  irreligious  body; 
although  a  Dr.  WaUis,  one  of  the  first  members,  espe- 
cially declared  that  "  matters  of  theology "  were 
"precluded":  the  business  being  "to  discourse  and 
consider  of  philosophical  inquiries  and  such  as  re- 
lated thereunto;  as  Physick,  Anatomy,  Geometry, 
Astronomy,  Navigation,  Staticks,  Magneticks,  Chym- 
icks,  and  Natural  Experiments ;  with  the  state  of  these 
studies,  and  their  cultivation  at  home  and  abroad." 
Regardless  of  South  and  such  as  agreed  with  him, 
Torricelli  worked  at  hydrodynamics,  and  discovered 
the  principle  of  the  barometer;  Boyle  inquired  into 
the  law  of  the  compressibility  of  gases;  Malpighi 
examined  minute  life-forms  and  the  structure  of  or- 
gans under  the  microscope;  Ray  and  Willughby 
classified  plants  and  animals;  Newton  theorized  on 

Q9 


lOO  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

the  nature  of  light;  and  Roemer  measured  its  speed; 
Halley  estimated  the  sun's  distance,  predicted  the 
return  of  comets,  and  observed  the  transits  of  Venus 
and  Mercury;  Hunter  dissected  specimens,  and  laid 
the  foundations  of  the  science  of  comparative  anat- 
omy; and  many  another  illustrious  worker  con- 
tributed to  the  world's  stock  of  knowledge  "  without 
let  or  hindrance,"  for  in  all  this  "  matters  of  theology 
were  precluded." 

But  the  old  spirit  of  resistance  was  aroused  when, 
after  a  long  lapse  of  time,  inquiry  was  revived  in 
a  branch  of  science  which,  it  will  be  noticed,  has  no 
distinct  place  in  the  subjects  dealt  with  by  the  Royal 
Society  at  the  start.  That  science  was  Geology;  a 
science  destined,  in  its  ultimate  scope,  to  prove  a  far 
more  powerful  dissolvent  of  dogma  than  any  of  its 
compeers. 

It  seems  strange  that  the  discovery  of  the  earth's 
true  shape  and  movements  was  not  sooner  followed 
by  investigation  into  her  contents,  but  the  old  ideas 
of  special  creation  remained  unaffected  by  these  and 
other  discoveries,  and  the  more  or  less  detailed 
account  of  the  process  of  creation  furnished  in  the 
book  of  Genesis  sufficed  to  arrest  curiosity.  In  the 
various  departments  of  the  inorganic  universe  the 
earth  was  the  last  to  become  subject  of  scientific  re- 
search; as  in  study  of  the  organic  universe,  man  ex- 
cluded himself  till  science  compelled  his  inclusion. 

After  more  than  two  thousand  years,  the  Ionian 
philosophers  "  come  to  their  own  "  again.     Xenoph- 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE,  loi 

anes  of  Colophon  has  been  referred  to  as  arriving, 
five  centuries  b.  c,  at  a  true  explanation  of  the  im- 
prints of  plants  and  animals  in  rocks.  Pythagoras, 
who  lived  before  him,  may,  if  Ovid,  writing  near  the 
Christian  era,  is  to  be  trusted,  have  reached  some 
sound  conclusions  about  the  action  of  water  in  the 
changes  of  land  and  sea  areas.  But  we  are  on  surer 
ground  when  we  meet  the  geographer  Strabo,  who 
lived  in  the  reign  of  Augustus.  Describing  the  coun- 
tries in  which  he  travelled,  he  notes  their  various 
features,  and  explains  the  causes  of  earthquakes  and 
allied  phenomena.  Then  eleven  hundred  years  pass 
before  we  find  any  explanation  of  like  rational  char- 
acter supplied.  This  was  furnished  by  the  Arabian 
philosopher,  Avicenna,  whose  theory  of  the  origin 
of  mountains  is  the  more  marvellous  when  we  re- 
member what  intellectual  darkness  surrounded  him. 
He  says  that  "  mountains  may  be  due  to  two  differ- 
ent causes.  Either  they  are  effects  of  upheavals  of 
the  crust  of  the  earth,  such  as  might  occur  during  a 
violent  earthquake,  or  they  are  the  effect  of  water, 
which,  cutting  for  itself  a  new  route,  has  denuded 
the  valleys,  the  strata  being  of  different  kinds,  some 
soft,  some  hard.  The  winds  and  waters  disintegrate 
the  one,  but  leave  the  other  intact.  Most  of  the  emi- 
nences of  the  earth  have  had  this  latter  origin.  It 
would  require  a  long  period  of  time  for  all  such 
changes  to  be  accomplished,  during  which  the  moun- 
tains themselves  might  be  somewhat  diminished  in 
size.     But  that  water  has  been  the  main  cause  of 


I02  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

these  effects  is  proved  by  the  existence  of  fossil  re- 
mains of  aquatic  and  other  animals  on  many  moun- 
tains "  (cf.  Osborn's  From  the  Greeks  to  Darwin, 
p.  76).  A  similar  explanation  of  fossils  was  given 
by  the  engineer-artist  Leonardo  de  Vinci  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  and  by  the  potter  Bernard  Palissy, 
in  the  sixteenth  century;  but  thence  onward,  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years,  the  earth  was  as  a  sealed 
book  to  man.  The  earlier  chapters  of  its  history, 
once  reopened,  have  never  been  closed  again.  Varied 
as  were  the  theories  of  the  causes  which  wrought 
manifold  changes  on  its  surface,  they  agreed  in  de- 
manding a  far  longer  time-history  than  the  Church 
was  willing  to  allow.  If  the  reasoning  of  the  geolo- 
gists was  sound,  the  narrative  in  Genesis  was  a  myth. 
Hence  the  renewal  of  struggle  between  the  Christian 
Church  and  Science,  waged,  at  first,  over  the  six 
days  of  the  Creation. 

Here  and  there,  in  bygone  days,  a  sceptical  voice 
had  been  raised  in  denial  of  the  Mosaic  authorship 
of  the  Pentateuch.  Such  was  that  of  La  Peyrere 
who,  in  1655,  published  an  instalment  of  a  work  in 
which  he  anticipated  what  is  nowadays  accepted, 
but  what  then  was  akin  to  blasphemy  to  utter.  For 
not  only  does  he  doubt  whether  Moses  had  any 
hand  in  the  writings  attributed  to  him:  he  rejects 
the  orthodox  view  of  suffering  and  death  as  the 
penalties  of  Adam's  disobedience;  and  gives  rational- 
istic interpretation  of  the  appearance  of  the  star  of 
Bethlehem,  and  of  the  darkness  at  the  Crucifixion. 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE, 


103 


But  La  Peyrere  became  a  Roman  Catholic,  and,  of 
course,  recanted  his  opinions.  Then,  nearer  the  time 
when  controversy  on  the  historical  character  of  the 
Scriptures  was  becoming  active,  one  Astruc,  a  French 
physician,  suggested,  in  a  work  pubHshed  in  1753, 
that  Moses  may  have  used  older  materials  in  his 
compilation  of  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Pentateuch. 

But,  practically,  the  five  books  included  under 
that  name,  were  believed  to  have  been  written  by 
Moses  under  divine  authority.  The  statement  in 
Genesis  that  God  made  the  universe  and  its  contents, 
both  living  and  non-living,  in  six  days  of  twenty- 
four  hours  each,  was  explicit.  Thus  interpreted,  as 
their  plain  meaning  warranted.  Archbishop  Usher 
made  his  famous  calculation  as  to  the  time  elapsing 
between  the  creation  and  the  birth  of  Christ.  Dr. 
White,  in  his  important  Warfare  of  Science  with 
Theology,  gives  an  amusing  example  of  the  applica- 
tion of  Usher's  method  in  detail.  A  seventeenth 
century  divine,  Dr.  Lightfoot,  Vice- Chancellor  of 
Cambridge  University,  computed  that  "  man  was 
created  by  the  Trinity  on  23d  October,  4004  b.  c, 
at  nine  oclock  in  the  morning."  The  same  theo- 
logian, who,  by  the  way,  was  a  very  eminent  Hebrew 
scholar,  following  the  interpretation  of  the  great 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  "  declared,  as  the  result  of 
profound  and  exhaustive  study  of  the  Scriptures, 
that  '  heaven  and  earth,  centre  and  circumference, 
and  clouds  full  of  water,  were  created  all  together, 
in  the  same  instant.' " 


104  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

The  story  of  the  Deluge  was  held  to  furnish  suf- 
ficing explanation  of  the  organic  remains  yielded  by 
the  rocks,  but  faiHng  this,  a  multitude  of  fantastic 
theories  were  at  hand  to  explain  the  fossils.  They 
were  said  to  be  due  to  a  *'  formative  quality  "  in  the 
soil;  to  its  "plastic  virtue";  to  a  '' lapidific  juice"; 
to  the  "  fermentation  of  fatty  matter  ";  to  ''  the  influ- 
ence of  the  heavenly  bodies,"  or,  as  the  late  eminent 
naturalist,  Philip  Gosse,  seriously  suggested  in  his 
whimsical  book  Omphalos:  an  Attempt  to  untie 
the  Geological  Knot,  they  were  but  simulacra  where- 
with a  mocking  Deity  rebuked  the  curiosity  of  man. 
Every  explanation,  save  the  right  and  obvious  one, 
had  its  defenders,  because  it  was  essential  to  support 
some  theory  to  rebut  the  evidence  supplied  by  re- 
mains of  animals  as  to  the  existence  of  death  in 
the  world  before  the  fall  of  Adam.  Otherwise,  the 
statements  in  the  Old  Testament,  on  which  the  Paul- 
ine reasoning  rested,  were  baseless,  and  to  discredit 
these  was  to  undermine  the  authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures from  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse.  No  wonder, 
therefore,  that  theology  was  up  in  arms,  or  that  it 
saw  in  geology  a  deadlier  foe  than  astronomy  had 
seemed  to  be  in  ages  past.  The  Sorbonne,  or  Faculty 
of  Theology,  in  Paris  burnt  the  books  of  the  geolo- 
gists, banished  their  authors,  and,  in  the  case  of 
Buffon,  the  famous  naturalist,  condemned  him  to  re- 
tract the  awful  heresy,  which  was  declared  "  con- 
trary to  the  creed  of  the  Church,"  contained  in  these 
words:  "The  waters  of  the  sea  have  produced  the 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE, 


105 


mountains  and  valleys  of  the  land;  the  waters  of  the 
heavens,  reducing  all  to  a  level,  will  at  last  deliver 
the  whole  land  over  to  the  sea,  and  the  sea  succes- 
sively prevailing  over  the  land,  will  leave  dry  new 
continents  like  those  which  we  inhabit."  So  the  old 
man  repeated  the  submission  of  Galileo,  and  pub- 
Hshed  his  recantation:  "  I  declare  that  I  had  no  in- 
tention to  contradict  the  text  of  Scripture;  that  I 
believe  most  firmly  all  therein  related  about  the 
creation,  both  as  to  order  of  time  and  matter  of 
fact.  I  abandon  everything  in  my  book  respecting 
the  formation  of  the  earth,  and  generally  all  which 
may  be  contrary  to  the  narrative  of  Moses."  That 
was  in  the  year  1751. 

If  the  English  theologians  could  not  deliver 
heretics  of  the  type  of  Bufifon  to  the  secular  arm, 
they  used  all  the  means  that  denunciation  supplied 
for  delivering  them  over  to  Satan.  Epithets  were 
hurled  at  them;  arguments  drawn  from  a  world 
accursed  of  God  levelled  at  them.  Saint  Jerome, 
living  in  the  fourth  century,  had  pointed  to  the 
cracked  and  crumpled  rocks  as  proof  of  divine  anger : 
now  Wesley  and  others  saw  in  "  sin  the  moral  cause 
of  earthquakes,  whatever  their  natural  cause  might 
be,"  since  before  Adam's  transgression,  no  convul- 
sions or  eruptions  ruffled  the  calm  of  Paradise. 
Meanwhile,  the  probing  of  the  earth's  crust  went  on; 
revealing,  amidst  all  the  seeming  confusion  of  dis- 
torted and  metamorphosed  rocks,  an  unvarying  se- 
quence of  strata,  and  of  the  fossils  imbedded  in  them. 
8 


Io6  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

Different  causes  were  assigned  for  the  vast  changes 
ranging  over  vast  periods;  one  school  believing  in 
the  action  of  volcanic  and  such  like  catastrophic 
agents;  another  in  the  action  of  aqueous  agents,  see- 
ing, more  consistently,  in  present  operations  the  ex- 
planation of  the  causes  of  past  changes.  But  there 
was  no  diversity  of  opinion  concerning  the  exten- 
sion of  the  earth's  time-history  and  life-history  to 
millions  on  millions  of  years. 

So,  when  this  was  to  be  no  longer  resisted,  theo- 
logians sought  some  basis  of  compromise  on  such 
non-fundamental  points  as  the  six  days  of  creation. 
It  was  suggested  that  perhaps  these  did  not  mean 
the  seventh  part  of  a  week,  but  periods,  or  eons,  or 
something  equally  elastic;  and  that  if  the  Mosaic 
narrative  was  regarded  as  a  poetic  revelation  of  the 
general  succession  of  phenomena,  beginning  with  the 
development  of  order  out  of  chaos,  and  ending  with 
the  creation  of  man.  Scripture  would  be  found  to 
have  anticipated  or  revealed  what  science  confirms. 
It  was  impossible,  so  theologians  argued,  that  there 
could  be  aught  else  than  harmony  between  the  di- 
vine works  and  the  writings  which  were  assumed  to 
be  of  divine  origin.  Science  could  not  contradict 
revelation,  and  whatever  seemed  contradictory  was 
due  to  misapprehension  either  of  the  natural  fact, 
or  to  misreading  of  the  written  word.  But  although 
the  story  of  the  creation  might  be  clothed,  as  so 
exalted  and  moving  a  theme  warranted,  in  poetic 
form,  that  of  the  fall  of  Adam  and  of  the  drowning 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE, 


107 


of  his  descendants,  eight  persons  excepted,  must 
be  taken  in  all  its  appalling  literalness.  Confirmation 
of  the  Deluge  story  was  found  in  the  fossil  shells  on 
high  mountain  tops;  while  as  for  the  giants  of  ante- 
diluvian times,  there  were  the  huge  bones  in  proof. 
Some  of  these  relics  of  mastodon  and  mammoth  were 
actually  hung  up  in  churches  as  evidence  that  "  there 
were  giants  in  those  days  "  !  Geofifroy  Saint-Hilaire 
tells  of  one  Henrion,  who  published  a  book  in  1718 
giving  the  height  of  Adam  as  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three  feet  nine  inches,  and  of  Eve  as  one  hun- 
dred and  eighteen  feet  nine  inches,  Noah  being  of 
rather  less  stature.  But  to  parley  with  science  is 
fatal  to  theology.  Moreover,  arguments  which  in- 
volve the  cause  they  support  in  ridicule  may  be  left 
to  refute  themselves.  And  while  theology  was  hesi- 
tating, as  in  the  amusing  example  supplied  by  Dr. 
William  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  (published 
in  1863)  wherein  the  reader,  turning  up  the  arti- 
cle "  Deluge,"  is  referred  to  "  Flood,"  and  thence 
to  "  Noah  "  ;  archaeology  produced  the  Chaldsean 
original  of  the  legend  whence  the  story  of  the 
flood  is  derived.  With  candour  as  commendable 
as  it  is  rare,  the  Reverend  Professor  Driver,  from 
whom  quotation  has  been  made  already,  admits 
that  "  read  without  prejudice  or  bias,  the  narra- 
tive of  Genesis  i.  creates  an  impression  at  vari- 
ance with  the  facts  revealed  by  science  "  ;  all  ef- 
forts at  reconciliation  being  only  "  different  modes 
of  obliterating  the  characteristic  features  of  Gene- 


I08  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

sis,  and  of  reading  into  it  a  view  which  it  does  not 
express." 

While  the  ground  in  favour  of  the  literal  inter- 
pretation of  Genesis  was  being  contested,  an  invad- 
ing force,  that  had  been  gathering  strength  with  the 
years,  was  advancing  in  the  shape  of  the  science  of 
Biology.  The  workers  therein  fall  into  two  classes: 
the  one,  represented  by  Linnaeus  and  his  school,  ap- 
plied themselves  to  the  classifying  and  naming  of 
plants  and  animals;  the  other,  represented  by  Cuvier 
and  his  school,  examined  into  structure  and  func- 
tion. Anatomy  made  clear  the  machinery:  physi- 
ology the  work  which  it  did,  and  the  conditions  under 
which  the  work  was  done.  Then,  through  compari- 
son of  corresponding  organs  and  their  functions  in 
various  life-forms,  came  growing  perception  of  their 
unity.  But  only  to  a  few  came  gleams  of  that  unity 
as  proof  of  common  descent  of  plant  and  animal, 
for,  save  in  scattered  hints  of  inter-relation  between 
species,  which  occur  from  the  time  of  Lord  Bacon 
onward,  the  theory  of  their  immutability  was  domi- 
nant until  forty  years  ago. 

Four  men  form  the  chief  vanguard  of  the  biologi- 
cal movement.  "  Modern  classificatory  method  and 
nomenclature  have  largely  grown  out  of  the  work 
of  Linnaeus;  the  modern  conception  of  biology,  as  a 
science,  and  of  its  relation  to  climatology,  geogra- 
phy, and  geology,  are  as  largely  rooted  in  the  labours 
of  Bufifon;  comparative  anatomy  and  palaeontology 
owe  a  vast  debt  to  Cuvier's  results;  while  inverte- 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE.  iqq 

brate  zoology  and  the  revival  of  the  idea  of  Evolu- 
tion are  intimately  dependent  on  the  results  of  the 
work  of  Lamarck.  In  other  words,  the  main  results 
of  biology  up  to  the  early  years  of  this  century  are  to 
be  found  in,  or  spring  out  of,  the  works  of  these  men." 

Linnaeus,  son  of  a  Lutheran  pastor,  born  at 
Roeshult,  in  Sweden,  in  1707,  had  barely  passed  his 
twenty-fifth  year  before  laying  the  ground-plan  of 
the  system  of  classification  which  bears  his  name, 
a  system  which  advance  in  knowledge  has  since 
modified.  Based  on  external  resemblances,  its 
formulation  was  possible  only  to  a  mind  intent  on 
minute  and  accurate  detail,  and  less  observant  of 
general  principles.  In  brief,  the  work  of  Linnaeus 
was  constructive,  not  interpretative.  Hence,  per- 
haps, conjoined  to  the  theological  ideas  then  current, 
the  reason  why  the  larger  question  of  the  fixity  of 
species  entered  not  into  his  purview.  To  him  each 
plant  and  animal  retained  the  impress  of  the  Creative 
hand  that  had  shaped  it  ''  in  the  beginning,"  and, 
throughout  his  working  life,  he  departed  but  slightly 
from  the  plan  with  which  he  started,  namely,  "  reck- 
oning as  many  species  as  issued  in  pairs  "  from  the 
Almighty  fiat. 

Not  so  Buffon,  born  on  his  father's  estate  in  Bur- 
gundy in  the  same  year  as  Linnaeus,  whom  he  sur- 
vived ten  years,  dying  in  1788.  His  opinions,  clash- 
ing as  they  did  with  orthodox  creeds,  were  given  in 
a  tentative,  questioning  fashion,  so  that  where  eccle- 
siastical censure  fell,  retreat  was  easier.    As  has  been 


no  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

seen  in  his  submission  to  the  Sorbonne,  he  was  not 
of  the  stuff  of  which  martyrs  are  made.  Perhaps  he 
felt  that  the  ultimate  victory  of  his  opinions  was  suf- 
ficiently assured  to  make  self-sacrifice  needless.  But, 
under  cover  of  pretence  at  inquiry,  his  convictions 
are  clear  enough.  He  was  no  beHever  in  the  perma- 
nent stability  of  species,  and  noted,  as  warrant  of 
this,  the  otherwise  unexplained  presence  of  aborted 
or  rudimentary  structures.  For  example,  he  says, 
**  the  pig  does  not  appear  to  have  been  formed  upon 
an  original,  special,  and  perfect  plan,  since  it  is  a 
compound  of  other  animals;  it  has  evidently  useless 
parts,  or  rather,  parts  of  which  it  cannot  make  any 
use,  toes,  all  the  bones  of  which  are  perfectly  formed, 
and  which,  nevertheless,  are  of  no  service  to  it.  Na- 
ture is  far  from  subjecting  herself  to  final  causes  in 
the  formation  of  her  creatures."  Then,  further,  as 
showing  his  convictions  on  the  non-fixity  of  species, 
he  says,  how  many  of  them,  "  being  perfected  or  de- 
generated by  the  great  changes  in  land  and  sea,  by 
the  favours  or  disfavours  of  Nature,  by  food,  by  the 
prolonged  influences  of  climate,  contrary  or  favour- 
able, are  no  longer  what  they  formerly  were."  But 
he  writes  with  an  eye  on  the  Sorbonne  when,  hinting 
at  a  possible  common  ancestor  of  horse  and  ass,  and 
of  ape  and  man,  he  slyly  adds  that  since  the  Bible 
teaches  the  contrary,  the  thing  cannot  be.  Thus  he 
attacked  covertly;  by  adit,  not  by  direct  assault; 
and  to  those  who  read  between  the  lines  there  was 
given  a  key  wherewith  to  unlock  the  door  to  the 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE,  m 

solution  of  many  biological  problems.  Buffon,  con- 
sequently, was  the  most  stimulating  and  suggestive 
naturalist  of  the  eighteenth  century.  There  comes 
between  him  and  Lamarck,  both  in  order  of  time 
and  sequence  of  ideas,  Erasmus  Darwin,  the  distin- 
guished grandfather  of  Charles  Darwin. 

Born  at  Eton,  near  Newark,  in  1731,  he  walked 
the  hospitals  at  London  and  Edinburgh,  and  settled, 
for  some  years,  at  Lichfield,  ultimately  removing  to 
Derby.  Since  Lucretius,  no  scientific  writer  had 
put  his  cosmogonic  speculations  into  verse  until  Dr. 
Darwin  made  the  heroic  metre,  in  which  stereotyped 
form  the  poetry  of  his  time  was  cast,  the  vehicle  of 
rhetorical  descriptions  of  the  amours  of  flowers  and 
the  evolution  of  the  thumb.  The  Loves  of  the  Plants, 
ridiculed  in  the  Loves  of  the  Triangles  in  the  Anti- 
Jacobin,  is  not  to  be  named  in  the  same  breath,  for 
stateliness  of  diction,  and  majesty  of  movement,  as 
the  De  rerum  Natura.  But  both  the  prose  work 
Zoonomia  and  the  poem  The  Temple  of  Nature  (pub- 
lished after  the  author's  death  in  1802)  have  claim 
to  notice  as  the  matured  expression  of  conclusions  at 
which  the  clear-sighted,  thoughtful,  and  withal,  ec- 
centric doctor  had  arrived  in  the  closing  years  of  his 
life.  Krause's  Life  and  Study  of  the  Works  of  Eras- 
mus Darwin  suppHes  an  excellent  outline  of  the  con- 
tents of  books  which  are  now  rarely  taken  down 
from  the  shelves,  and  makes  clear  that  their  author 
had  the  root  of  the  matter  in  him.  His  observations 
and  reading,  for  the  influence  of  Bufifon  and  others 


112  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

is  apparent  in  his  writings,  led  him  to  reject  the  cur- 
rent belief  in  the  separate  creation  of  species.  He 
saw  that  this  theory  wholly  failed  to  account  for  the 
existence  of  abnormal  forms,  of  adaptations  of  the 
structure  of  organs  to  their  work,  of  gradations  be- 
tween living  things,  and  other  features  inconsistent 
with  the  doctrine  of  **  let  lions  be,  and  there  were 
lions."  His  shrewd  comment  on  the  preformation 
notion  of  development  has  been  quoted  (p.  20). 
The  substance  of  his  argument  in  support  of  a 
"physical  basis  of  life"  is  as  follows:  *' When  we 
revolve  in  our  minds  the  metamorphosis  of  animals, 
as  from  the  tadpole  to  the  frog;  secondly,  the  changes 
produced  by  artificial  cultivation,  as  in  the  breeds 
of  horses,  dogs,  and  sheep ;  thirdly,  the  changes  pro- 
duced by  conditions  of  climate  and  of  season,  as  in 
the  sheep  of  warm  climates  being  covered  with  hair 
instead  of  wool,  and  the  hares  and  partridges  of 
northern  climates  becoming  white  in  winter;  when, 
further,  we  observe  the  changes  of  structure  pro- 
duced by  habit,  as  seen  especially  by  men  of  dififer- 
ent  occupations;  or  the  changes  produced  by  arti- 
ficial mutilation  and  prenatal  influences,  as  in  the 
crossing  of  species  and  production  of  monsters; 
fourth,  when  we  observe  the  essential  unity  of  plan 
in  all  warm-blooded  animals — we  are  led  to  con- 
clude that  they  have  been  ahke  produced  from  a 
similar  living  filament."  The  concluding  words  of 
this  extract  make  remarkable  approach  to  the  mod- 
ern theory  of  the  origin  of  life  in  the  complex  jelly- 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE. 


113 


like  protoplasm,  or,  as  some  call  it,  nuclein  or  nucleo- 
plasm. And,  on  this,  Erasmus  Darwin  further  re- 
marks: ''As  the  earth  and  ocean  were  probably 
peopled  with  vegetable  productions  long  before  the 
existence  of  animals,  and  many  families  of  these 
animals  long  before  other  animals  of  them,  shall  we 
conjecture  that  one  and  the  same  kind  of  living  fila- 
ment is  and  has  been  the  cause  of  all  organic  life?  " 
Nor  does  he  make  any  exception  to  this  law  of  or- 
ganic development.  He  quotes  Buffon  and  Hel- 
vetius  to  the  effect — "  that  many  features  in  the  anat- 
omy of  man  point  to  a  former  quadrupedal  position, 
and  indicate  that  he  is  not  yet  fully  adapted  to  the 
erect  position;  that,  further,  man  may  have  arisen 
from  a  single  family  of  monkeys,  in  which,  acciden- 
tally, the  opposing  muscle  brought  the  thumb  against 
the  tips  of  the  fingers,  and  that  this  muscle  gradually 
increased  in  size  by  use  in  successive  generations." 
While  we  who  live  in  these  days  of  fuller  knowledge 
of  agents  of  variation  may  detect  the  mvnus  in  all 
foregoing  speculations,  our  interest  is  increased  in 
the  thought  of  their  near  approach  to  the  cardinal 
discovery.  And  a  rapid  run  through  the  later  writ- 
ings of  Dr.  Darwin  shows  that  there  is  scarcely  a 
side  of  the  great  theory  of  Evolution  which  has  es- 
caped his  notice  or  suggestive  comment.  Grant 
Allen,  in  his  excellent  little  monograph  on  Charles 
Darwin,  says  that  the  theory  of  "  natural  selection 
was  the  only  cardinal  one  in  the  evolutionary  system 
on  which  Erasmus  Darwin  did  not  actuallv  forestall 


114 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


his  more  famous  and  greater  namesake.  For  its 
full  perception,  the  discovery  of  Malthus  had  to  be 
collated  with  the  speculations  of  Buffon." 

In  the  Historical  Sketch  on  the  Progress  of 
Opinion  on  the  Origin  of  Species,  which  Darwin 
prefixed  to  his  book,  he  refers  to  Lamarck  as  "  the 
first  man  whose  conclusions  on  the  subject  excited 
much  attention;  "  rendering  "  the  eminent  service  of 
arousing  attention  to  the  probability  of  all  change 
in  the  organic,  as  well  as  in  the  inorganic  world, 
being  the  result  of  law,  and  not  of  miraculous  inter- 
position." Lamarck  was  born  at  Bezantin,  in  Picar- 
dy,  in  1744.  Intended  for  the  Church,  he  chose  the 
army,  but  an  injury  resulting  from  a  practical  joke 
cut  short  his  career  as  a  soldier.  He  then  became  a 
banker's  clerk,  in  which  occupation  he  secured  lei- 
sure for  his  favourite  pursuit  of  natural  history. 
Through  Buffon's  influence  he  procured  a  civil  ap- 
pointment, and  ultimately  became  a  colleague  of 
Cuvier  and  Geoffroy  St.  Hilaire  in  the  Museum  of 
Natural  History  at  Paris.  Of  Cuvier  it  will  here 
suffice  to  say  that  he  remained  to  the  end  of  his  life 
a  believer  in  special  creation,  or,  what  amounts  to 
the  same  thing,  a  series  of  special  creations  which, 
he  held,  followed  the  catastrophic  annihilations  of 
prior  plants  and  animals.  Although  orthodox  by 
conviction,  his  researches  told  against  his  tenets,  be- 
cause his  important  work  in  the  reconstruction  of 
skeletons  of  long  extinct  animals  laid  the  foundation 
of  palaeontology. 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE. 


115 


To  Lamarck,  says  Haeckel,  *'  will  always  belong 
the  immortal  glory  of  having  for  the  first  time  worked 
out  the  Theory  of  Descent  as  an  independent  sci- 
entific theory  of  the  first  order,  and  as  the  philosophi- 
cal foundation  of  the  whole  science  of  Biology."  He 
taught  that  in  the  beginnings  of  life  only  the  very  sim- 
plest and  lowest  animals  and  plants  came  into  exist- 
ence; those  of  more  complex  structure  developing 
from  these;  man  himself  being  descended  from  ape- 
like mammals.  For  the  Aristotelian  mechanical  figure 
of  life  as  a  ladder,  with  its  detached  steps,  he  substituted 
the  more  appropriate  figure  of  a  tree,  as  an  inter- 
related organism.  He  argued  that  the  course  of  the 
earth's  development,  and  also  of  all  life  upon  it,  was 
continuous,  and  not  interrupted  by  violent  revolu- 
tions. In  this  he  followed  BufTon  and  Hutton.  Buf- 
fon,  in  his  Theory  of  the  Earth,  argues  that  "  in 
order  to  understand  what  had  taken  place  in  the  past, 
or  what  will  happen  in  the  future,  we  have  but  to 
observe  what  is  going  on  in  the  present."  This  is 
the  keynote  of  modern  geology.  ''  Life,"  adds 
Lamarck,  "  is  a  purely  physical  phenomenon.  All 
its  phenomena  depend  on  mechanical,  physical,  and 
chemical  causes  which  are  inherent  in  the  nature  of 
matter  itself."  He  believed  in  a  form  of  spontaneous 
generation.  Rejecting  Bufifon's  theory  of  the  direct 
action  of  the  surroundings  as  agents  of  change  in 
living  things,  he  sums  up  the  causes  of  organic  evo- 
lution in  the  following  propositions: 

I.  Life  tends  by  its  inherent  forces  to  increase 


Il6  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

the  volume  of  each  living  body  and  of  all  its  parts 
up  to  a  limit  determined  by  its  own  needs. 

2.  New  wants  in  animals  give  rise  to  new  move- 
ments which  produce  organs. 

3.  The  development  of  these  organs  is  in  propor- 
tion to  their  employment. 

4.  New  developments  are  transmitted  to  off- 
spring. 

The  second  and  third  propositions  were  illus- 
trated by  examples  which  have,  with  good  reason, 
provoked  ridicule.  Lamarck  accounts  for  the  long 
neck  of  the  girafife  by  that  organ  being  continually 
stretched  out  to  reach  the  leaves  at  the  tree-tops; 
for  the  long  tongue  of  the  ant-eater  or  the  wood- 
pecker by  these  creatures  protruding  it  to  get  at 
food  in  channel  or  crevice;  for  the  webbed  feet  of 
aquatic  animals  by  the  outstretching  of  the  mem- 
branes between  the  toes  in  swimming;  and  for  the 
erect  position  of  man  by  the  constant  efforts  of  his 
ape-like  ancestors  to  keep  upright.  The  legless  con- 
dition of  the  serpent  which,  in  the  legend  of  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden,  is  accounted  for  on  moral  grounds,  is 
thus  explained  by  Lamarck:  "Snakes  sprang  from 
reptiles  with  four  extremities,  but  having  taken  up 
the  habit  of  moving  along  the  earth  and  concealing 
themselves  among  bushes,  their  bodies,  owing  to 
repeated  efforts  to  elongate  themselves  and  to  pass 
through  narrow  spaces,  have  acquired  a  considerable 
length  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  width.  Since 
long  feet  would  have  been  very  useless,  and  short 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE. 


117 


feet  would  have  been  incapable  of  moving  their 
bodies,  there  resulted  a  cessation  of  use  of  these 
parts,  which  has  finally  caused  them  to  totally  dis- 
appear, although  they  were  originally  part  of  the 
plan  of  organization  in  these  animals."  The  discov- 
ery of  an  efficient  cause  of  modifications,  which 
Lamarck  refers  to  the  efforts  of  the  creatures  them- 
selves, has  placed  his  speculations  in  the  museum  of 
biological  curiosities;  but  sharp  controversy  rages 
to-day  over  the  question  raised  in  Lamarck's  fourth 
proposition,  namely,  the  transmission  of  characters 
acquired  by  the  parent  during  its  lifetime  to  the 
ofifspring.  This  burning  question  between  Weismann 
and  his  opponents,  involving  the  serious  problem  of 
heredity,  will  remain  unsettled  till  a  long  series  of 
observations  supply  material  for  judgment. 

Lamarck,  poor,  neglected,  and  blind  in  his  old 
age,  died  in  1829.  Both  Cuvier,  who  ridiculed  him, 
and  Goethe,  who  never  heard  of  him,  passed  away 
three  years  later.  The  year  following  his  death,  when 
Darwin  was  an  undergraduate  at  Cambridge,  Lyell 
published  his  Principles  of  Geology,  a  work  destined 
to  assist  in  paving  the  way  for  the  removal  of  one 
difficulty  attending  the  solution  of  the  theory  of  the 
origin  of  species,  namely,  the  vast  period  of  time  for 
the  life-history  of  the  globe  which  that  theory  de- 
mands. As  Lyell,  however,  was  then  a  believer — 
although,  like  a  few  others  of  his  time,  of  wavering 
type — in  the  fixity  of  species,  he  had  other  aims  in 
view  than  those  to  which  his  book  contributed.    But 


Il8  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

he  wrote  with  an  open  mind,  not  being,  as  Herbert 
Spencer  says  of  Hugh  Miller,  ''  a  theologian  study- 
ing geology."  Following  the  theories  of  uniformity 
of  action  laid  down  by  Hutton,  by  Buffon,  and  by 
that  industrious  surveyor,  William  Smith,  who  trav- 
elled the  length  and  breadth  of  England,  mapping 
out  the  sequence  of  the  rocks,  and  tabulating  the 
fossils  special  to  each  stratum,  Lyell  demonstrated 
in  detail  that  the  formation  and  features  of  the  earth's 
crust  are  explained  by  the  operation  of  causes  still 
active.  He  was  one  among  others,  each  working 
independently  at  diflferent  branches  of  research; 
each,  unwittingly,  collecting  evidence  which  would 
help  to  demoHsh  old  ideas,  and  support  new  theories. 
A  year  after  the  Principles  of  Geology  appeared, 
there  crept  unnoticed  into  the  world  a  treatise,  by 
one  Patrick  Matthew,  on  Naval  Timber  and  Arbori- 
culture, under  which  unexciting  title  Darwin's  theory 
was  anticipated.  Of  this,  however,  as  of  a  still  earHer 
anticipation,  more  presently.  About  this  period  Von 
Baer,  in  examining  the  embryos  of  animals,  showed 
that  creatures  so  unlike  one  another  in  their  adult 
state  as  fishes,  lizards,  lions,  and  men,  resemble  one 
another  so  closely  in  the  earHer  stages  of  their  de- 
velopment that  no  differences  can  be  detected  be- 
tween them.  But  Von  Baer  was  himself  anticipated 
by  Meckel,  who  wrote  as  follows  in  1811 :  "  There  is 
no  good  physiologist  who  has  not  been  struck,  in- 
cidentally, by  the  observation  that  the  original  form 
of  all  organisms  is  one  and  the  same,  and  that  out 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE. 


119 


of  this  one  form,  all,  the  lowest  as  well  as  the  highest, 
are  developed  in  such  a  manner  that  the  latter  pass 
through  the  permanent  forms  of  the  former  as  transi- 
tory stages  "  (Osborn's  From  the  Greeks  to  Darwin, 
p.  212).  In  botany  Conrad  Sprengel,  who  belongs 
to  the  eighteenth  century,  had  shown  the  work  ef- 
fected by  insects  in  the  fertilization  of  plants.  Fol- 
lowing his  researches,  Robert  Brown  made  clear  the 
mode  of  the  development  of  plants,  and  Sir  William 
Hooker  traced  their  habits  and  geographical  distri- 
bution. Von  Mohl  discovered  that  material  basis 
of  both  plant  and  animal  which  he  named  "  proto- 
plasm." In  1844,  nine  years  before  Von  Mohl  told 
the  story  of  the  building-up  of  life  from  a  seemingly 
structureless  jelly,  a  book  appeared  which  critics  of 
the  time  charged  with  "  poisoning  the  fountains  of 
science,  and  sapping  the  foundations  of  religion." 
This  was  the  once  famous  Vestiges  of  Creation,  ac- 
knowledged after  his  death  as  the  work  of  Robert 
Chambers,  in  which  the  origin  and  movements  of 
the  solar  system  were  explained  as  determined  by 
uniform  laws,  themselves  the  expression  of  Divine 
power.  Organisms,  "from  the  simplest  and  oldest, 
up  to  the  highest  and  most  recent,"  were  the  result 
of  an  "  inherent  impulse  imparted  by  the  Almighty 
both  to  advance  them  from  the  several  grades  and 
modify  their  structure  as  circumstances  required." 
Although  now  referred  to  only  as  "  marking  time  " 
in  the  history  of  the  theory  of  Evolution,  the  book 
created  a  sensation  which  died  away  only  some  years 


120  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

after  its  publication.  Darwin  remarks  upon  it  in  his 
Historical  Sketch  that  although  displaying  "  in  the 
earlier  editions  little  accurate  knowledge  and  a  great 
want  of  scientific  knowledge,  it  did  excellent  service 
in  this  country  in  calling  attention  to  the  subject,  in 
removing  prejudice,  and  in  thus  preparing  the 
ground  for  the  reception  of  analogous  views." 

Three  years  after  the  Vestiges,  there  was,  al- 
though none  then  knew  it,  or  knowing  the  fact,  would 
have  admitted  it,  more  "  sapping  of  the  foundations  " 
of  orthodox  beHef,  when  M.  Boucher  de  Perthes  ex- 
hibited some  rudely-shaped  flint  implements  which 
had  been  found  at  intervals  in  hitherto  undisturbed 
deposits  of  sand  and  gravel — old  river  beds — in  the 
Somme  valley,  near  Abbeville,  in  Picardy.  For  these 
rough  stone  tools  and  weapons,  being  of  human 
workmanship,  evidenced  the  existence  of  savage 
races  of  men  in  Europe  in  a  dim  and  dateless  past, 
and  went  far  to  refute  the  theories  of  his  paradisiacal 
state  on  that  memorable  "  23  October,  4004  b.  c," 
when,  according  to  Dr.  Lightfoot's  reckoning  (see 
p.  95),  Adam  was  created.  While  the  pickaxe,  in 
disturbing  flint  knives  and  spearheads,  that  had  lain 
for  countless  ages,  was  disturbing  much  besides, 
English  and  German  philosophers  were  formulating 
the  imposing  theory  which,  under  the  name  of  the 
Conservation  of  Energy,  makes  clear  the  indestructi- 
bility of  both  matter  and  motion.  Then,  to  com- 
plete the  work  of  preparation  effected  by  the  dis- 
coveries now  briefly  outHned,  there  appeared,  in  a 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE.  12 1 

now  defunct  newspaper,  the  Leader,  in  its  issue  of 
20th  of  March,  1852,  an  article  by  Herbert  Spencer 
on  the  Development  Hypothesis,  in  which  the  fol- 
lowing striking  passage  occurs :  "  Those  who  cava- 
lierly reject  the  Theory  of  Evolution,  as  not  ade- 
quately supported  by  facts,  seem  quite  to  forget  that 
their  own  theory  is  supported  by  no  facts  at  all.  Like 
the  majority  of  men  who  are  born  to  a  given  belief, 
they  demand  the  most  rigorous  proof  of  any  adverse 
belief,  but  assume  that  their  own  needs  none.  Here 
we  find,  scattered  over  the  globe,  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal organisms  numbering,  of  the  one  kind  (accord- 
ing to  Humboldt)  some  320,000  species,  and  of  the 
other,  some  2,000,000  species  (see  Carpenter);  and 
if  to  these  we  add  the  numbers  of  animal  and  vege- 
table species  that  have  become  extinct,  we  may  safely 
estimate  the  number  of  species  that  have  existed, 
and  are  existing,  on  the  earth,  at  not  less  than  ten 
millions.  Well,  which  is  the  most  rational  theory 
about  these  ten  millions  of  species?  Is  it  most  likely 
that  there  have  been  ten  millions  of  special  creations? 
or  is  it  most  likely  that  by  continual  modifications, 
due  to  change  of  circumstances,  ten  millions  of  varie- 
ties have  been  produced,  as  varieties  are  being  pro- 
duced still?  .  .  .  Even  could  the  supporters  of  the 
Development  Hypothesis  merely  show  that  the  origi- 
nation of  species  by  the  process  of  modification  is 
conceivable,  they  would  be  in  a  better  position  than 
their  opponents.  But  they  can  do  much  more  than 
this.  They  can  show  that  the  process  of  modification 
9 


122  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

has  effected,  and  is  effecting,  decided  changes  in  all 
organisms  subject  to  modifying  influences.  .  .  .  They 
can  show  that  in  successive  generations  these  changes 
continue,  until  ultimately  the  new  conditions  become 
the  natural  ones.  They  can  show  that  in  cultivated 
plants,  domesticated  animals,  and  in  the  several  races 
of  men,  such  alterations  have  taken  place.  They 
can  show  that  the  degrees  of  difference  so  produced 
are  often,  as  in  dogs,  greater  than  those  on  which 
distinctions  of  species  are  in  other  cases  founded. 
They  can  show,  too,  that  the  changes  daily  taking 
place  in  ourselves — the  facility  that  attends  long 
practice,  and  the  loss  of  aptitude  that  begins  when 
practice  ceases — the  strengthening  of  passions  habit- 
ually gratified,  and  the  weakening  of  those  habitually 
curbed — the  development  of  every  faculty,  bodily, 
moral,  or  intellectual,  according  to  the  use  made  of 
it — are  all  explicable  on  this  same  principle.  And 
thus  they  can  show  that  throughout  all  organic  na- 
ture there  is  at  work  a  modifying  influence  of  the 
kind  they  assign  as  the  cause  of  these  specific  dif- 
ferences; an  influence  which,  though  slow  in  its 
action,  does,  in  time,  if  the  circumstances  demand  it, 
produce  marked  changes — an  influence  which,  to  all 
appearance,  would  produce  in  the  millions  of  years, 
and  under  the  great  varieties  of  condition  which  geo- 
logical records  imply,  any  amount  of  change." 

This  quotation  shows,  as  perhaps  no  other  refer- 
ence might  show,  how,  by  the  middle  of  the  present 
century,  science  was  trembling  on  the  verge  of  dis- 


THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE, 


123 


covery  of  that  "  modifying  influence  "  of  which  Mr. 
Spencer  speaks.  That  discovery  made  clear  how  all 
that  had  preceded  it  not  only  contributed  thereto,  but 
gained  a  significance  and  value  which,  apart  from  it, 
could  not  have  been  secured.  When  the  relation  of 
the  several  parts  to  the  whole  became  manifest,  each 
fell  into  its  place  like  the  pieces  of  a  child's  puzzle 
map. 

Leading  Men  of  Science. 

A.  D.    800   TO    A.  D.    1800. 


Name. 


Geber  (Djafer). 
Avicenna  (Ibu  Sina). 

Averroes  (Ibu 
Roshd). 

Roger  Bacon. 

Christopher  Colum- 
bus. 
Vasco  de  Gama. 

Ferdinand  Magel- 
lan, 

Nicholas  Coperni- 
cus. 

Andreas  Vesalius. 
Conrad  Gesner. 

Andrew  Caesalpino. 

Tycho  Brahe. 


Place  and  date 
of  birth. 


Mesopotamia, 

830. 
Bokhara,  980. 


Spain,  1 126. 


Ilchester,  1214. 

Genoa,  1445, 

Sines,  1469. 
(Portugal.) 
Ville  de  Sabro- 

za,  1470. 
Thorn,  1473. 
(Prussia.) 

Brussels,  15 14. 
Zurich,  1516. 

Arezzo,  15 19. 

(Tuscany.) 

Knudstrup, 

1546. 
(Sweden.) 


Died. 


1037 

1198 

1292 
1506 

1525 
1521 

1543 

1564 
1565 

1603 
1601 


Speciality. 


Earliest  known  Chem- 
ist. 

Expositor  of  Aristotle; 
Physician  and  Geol- 
ogist. 

Translator  and  Com- 
mentator of  Aris- 
totle. 

First  English  Experi- 
mentalist. 

Discoverer  of  Amer- 
ica, 1492. 

Sailed  round  the  South 
of  Africa,  1497. 

Circumnavigator  of 
the  Globe,  15 19. 

Discoverer  of  the  Sun 
as  the  Centre  of  our 
System. 

Human  Anatomist. 

Classification  of 

Plants  and  Animals. 

Comparative  Botan- 
ist. 

Collector  of  Astro- 
nomical Data. 


124 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Name. 

Place  and  date 
of  birth. 

Died. 

Speciality. 

Giordano  Bruno. 

Nola,  1550. 

1600 

Expounder  of  the  Co- 
pemican  System 
and  Philosopher. 

Francis,    Lord    Ba- 

London, 1561. 

1626 

Expounder  of  the  In- 

con. 

ductive  Philosophy. 

Galileo  Galilei. 

Pisa,  1564. 

1642 

Numerous  Astronom- 
ical Discoveries. 

Johann  Kepler. 

Wiirtemburg, 

1630 

Discoverer      of      the 

1571- 

Three  Laws  of  Plan- 
etary Movements. 

Thomas  Hobbes. 

Malmesbury, 

1679 

One  of  the  Founders 

1588. 

of  Modern  Ethics. 

Rene  Descartes. 

LaHaye,  1596. 

1650 

Resolution  of  all  Phe- 

(Touraine.) 

nomena  into  Terms 
of  Matter  and  Mo- 
tion.    (Dualism.) 

Benedict  Spinoza. 

Amsterdam, 

1677 

Resolution  of  all  Phe- 

1632. 

nomena  into  Terms 
of  Substance = God. 
(Monism.) 

John  Locke. 

Wrington, 

1632. 
(Somerset.) 

1704 

Moral  Philosopher. 

Gottfrid       Wilhelm 

Leipsic,  1646. 

1716 

Philosopher  and  Math- 

Leibnitz. 

ematician. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton. 

Woolsthorpe, 

1727 

Expounder  of  the  Law 

1642. 

of  Gravitation. 

(Lincoln.) 

Edmund  Halley. 

London,  1656. 

1 741 

Astronomer. 

David  Hartley. 

Illingworth, 
1705. 

1757 

Psychology  of  Man. 

Carl  von  Linnaeus. 

Roeshult,  1707. 

1778 

Systematic  Botany  and 

(Sweden.) 

Zoology. 

Count  de  Buffon. 

Burgundy, 

1788 

Contributions  from  Bi- 

1707. 

ology  toward  The- 
ory of  Evolution 
and  Geology. 

David  Hume. 

Edinburgh, 

1776 

Philosophy  of  the  An- 

1711. 

ti-supernatural  ;  all 
Science  Converging 
in  Man. 

Immanuel  Kant. 

Konigsberg, 

1804 

Formulator     of     the 

1724. 

Nebular  Theory. 

James  Hutton. 

Edinburgh, 

1797 

Geologist  :  Uniformi- 

1726. 

tarian. 

THE  RENASCENCE   OF  SCIENCE. 


125 


Name. 

Place  and  date 
of  birth. 

Died. 

Speciality. 

Erasmus  Darwin. 

Elton,  1731. 
(Lincolnshire.) 

1802 

{^See  BuFFON.) 

Sir    William     Her- 

Hanover,  1738. 

1822 

Astronomer. 

schel. 

Jean    Baptiste     La- 

Bazantium, 

1829 

Biologist :     Contribu- 

marck. 

1744. 

tions  against  tixity 
of  Species. 

Marquis      de      La- 

Beaumont-en- 

1827 

Expounder     of      the 

place. 

Ange,  1749. 

Nebular  Theory. 

Conrad  Sprengel. 

Pomerania, 
1766. 

1833 

Botanist. 

John  Dalton. 

Eaglesfield, 

1844 

Formulator     of     the 

1767, 

Modern        Atomic 

(Cumberland.) 

Theory. 

Baron  Cuvier. 

Montbeliard, 

1832 

Palaeontologist       and 

1769. 

Anatomist. 

Geoff.  St.  Hilaire. 

Etampes,  1772. 

T844 

Zoologist. 

Alexan  der    von 

Berlin,  1769. 

1859 

Explorer. 

Humboldt. 

William  Smith. 

Churchill,  1769. 

1840 

Geologist :       mapped 

(Oxon.) 

Strata  of  Great 
Britain. 

Boucher  de  Perthes. 

1788. 

1868 

Discoverer  of  Evi- 
dences of  Man's 
Antiquity. 

Botanist. 

Sir  William  Hooker. 

Norwich,  1785. 

1865 

Sir  Charles  Lyell. 

Kinnordy, 

1875 

Geologist :   developed 

1797. 

Hutton's  Theory. 

(Forfarshire.) 

Ernst  von  Baer. 

Esthonia,  1792. 

1876 

Embryologist :  Law  of 
Organic  Develop- 
ment. 

Sir  Richard  Owen. 

Lancaster, 
1804. 

1892 

Palaeontologist. 

Hugo  von  Mohl. 

Germany,  1805. 

1872 

Discoverer  of  Proto- 
plasm. 

Theodor  Schwann. 

Neuss,  1810. 

1882 

Founder   of  the  Cell 

(Prussia.) 

Theory. 

Hermann  von  Helm- 

Potsdam,  1821. 

1894 

Formulator     of     the 

holtz. 

Doctrine  of  the 
Conservation  of  En- 

1 

ergy. 

PART  IV, 

MODERN    EVOLUTION. 

I.  Darwin  and  Wallace. 

We  have  to  deal  with  Man  as  a  product  of  Evolution  ;  with  Society 
as  a  product  of  Evolution  ;  and  with  Moral  Phenomena  as  prod- 
ucts of  Evolution. — Herbert  Spencer,  Principles  of  Ethics, 
§  193. 

Charles  Robert  Darwin  (the  second  name  was 
rarely  used  by  him)  was  born  at  Shrewsbury  on  the 
1 2th  of  February,  1809.  He  came  of  a  long  line  of 
Lincolnshire  yeomen,  whose  forbears  spelt  the  name 
variously,  as  Darwen,  Derwent,  and  Darwynne,  per- 
haps deriving  it  from  the  river  of  kindred  name. 
His  father  was  a  kindly,  prosperous  doctor,  of  suf- 
ficient scientific  reputation  to  secure  his  election  into 
the  Royal  Society,  although  that  coveted  honour 
was  then  more  easily  obtained  than  now.  Of  the 
more  famous  grandfather,  Erasmus  Darwin,  the  re- 
minder suffices  that  both  his  prose  and  poetry  were 
vehicles  of  suggestive  speculations  on  the  develop- 
ment of  life-forms.  DeaHng  with  bald  facts  and  dates 
for  clearance  of  what  follows,  it  may  be  added  that 
Charles  Darwin  was  educated  at  the  Grammar 
School  of  his  native  town;  that  he  passed  thence  to 
Edinburgh  and  Cambridge  Universities;  was  occu- 
pied as  volunteer  naturalist  on  board  the  Beagle  from 

126 


MODERN  EVOLUTION, 


127 


December,  1831,  till  October,  1836;  that  he  pub- 
lished his  epoch-making  Origin  of  Species  in  No- 
vember, 1859;  and  that  he  was  buried  by  the  side 
of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  in  Westminster  Abbey  on  the 
26th  of  April,  1882. 

As  with  not  a  few  other  men  of  "  light  and  lead- 
ing," neither  school  nor  university  did  much  for  him, 
nor  did  his  boyhood  give  indication  of  future  great- 
ness. In  his  answers  to  the  series  of  questions  ad- 
dressed to  various  scientific  men  in  1873  by  his  dis- 
tinguished cousin,  Francis  Galton,  he  says :  "  I  con- 
sider that  all  I  have  learnt  of  any  value  has  been 
self-taught,"  and  he  adds  that  his  education  fostered 
no  methods  of  observation  or  reasoning.  Of  the 
Shrewsbury  Grammar  School,  where,  after  the  death 
of  his  mother  (daughter  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  the 
celebrated  potter),  in  his  ninth  year,  he  was  placed 
as  a  boarder  till  his  sixteenth  year,  he  tells  us,  in  the 
modest  and  candid  Autobiography  printed  in  the 
Life  and  Letters,  "'  nothing  could  have  been  worse 
for  the  development  of  my  mind."  All  that  he  was 
taught  were  the  classics,  and  a  little  ancient  geog- 
raphy and  history;  no  mathematics,  and  no  modern 
languages.  Happily,  he  had  inherited  a  taste  for 
natural  history  and  for  collecting,  his  spoils  includ- 
ing not  only  shells  and  plants,  but  also  coins  and 
seals.  When  the  fact  that  he  helped  his  brother  in 
chemical  experiments  became  known  to  Dr.  Butler, 
the  head-master,  that  desiccated  pedagogue  publicly 
rebuked  him  "  for  wasting  time  on  such  useless  sub- 


128  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

jects."  Then  his  father,  angry  at  finding  that  he  was 
doing  no  good  at  school,  reproved  him  for  caring 
for  nothing  but  shooting,  dogs,  and  rat-catching,  and 
declared  that  he  would  be  a  disgrace  to  the  family! 
He  sent  him  to  Edinburgh  University  with  his 
brother  to  study  medicine,  but  Darwin  found  the 
dulness  of  the  lectures  intolerable,  and  the  sight  of 
blood  sickened  him,  as  it  did  his  father.  Although 
the  effect  of  the  "  incredibly  "  dry  lectures  on  geology 
made  him — the  future  Secretary  of  the  Geological 
Society! — vow  never  to  read  a  book  on  the  science, 
or  in  any  way  study  it,  his  interest  in  biological  sub- 
jects grew,  and  its  first  fruits  were  shown  in  a  paper 
read  before  the  Plinian  Society  at  Edinburgh  in  1826, 
in  which  he  reported  his  discovery  that  the  so-called 
ova  of  Flustra,  or  the  sea-mat,  were  larvae. 

But  his  father  had  to  accept  the  fact  that  Darwin 
disHked  the  idea  of  being  a  doctor,  and  fearing  that 
he  would  degenerate  into  an  idle  sporting  man,  pro- 
posed that  he  should  become  a  clergyman!  Darwin 
says  upon  this: — 

I  asked  for  some  time  to  consider,  as  from  what  little  I  had 
heard  or  thought  on  the  subject  I  had  scruples  about  declaring 
my  belief  in  all  the  dogmas  of  the  Church  of  England,  though 
otherwise  I  liked  the  thought  of  being  a  country  clergyman. 
Accordingly  I  read  with  care  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  and  a  few 
other  books  on  divinity;  and,  as  I  did  not  then  in  the  least 
doubt  the  strict  and  literal  truth  of  every  word  in  the  Bible,  I 
soon  persuaded  myself  that  our  creed  must  be  fully  accepted. 
Considering  how  fiercely  I  have  been  attacked  by  the  orthodox, 
it  seems  ludicrous  that  I  once  intended  to  be  a  clergyman. 
Nor  was  this  intention  and  my  father's  wish  ever  formally 


MODERN  EVOLUTION, 


129 


given  up,  but  died  a  natural  death  when,  on  leaving  Cambridge, 
I  joined  the  Beagle  as  naturalist.  If  the  phrenologists  are  to 
be  trusted,  I  was  well  fitted  in  one  respect  to  be  a  clergyman. 
A  few  years  ago  the  secretaries  of  a  German  psychological 
society  asked  me  earnestly  by  letter  for  a  photograph  of  my- 
self ;  and  some  time  afterwards  I  received  the  proceedings  of 
one  of  the  meetings,  in  which  it  seemed  that  the  shape  of  my 
head  had  been  the  subject  of  a  public  discussion,  and  one  of 
the  speakers  declared  that  I  had  the  bump  of  reverence  devel- 
oped enough  for  ten  priests. 

The  result  was  that  early  in  1828  Darwin  went 
to  Cambridge,  the  three  years  spent  at  which  were 
"  time  wasted,  as  far  as  the  academical  studies  were 
concerned."  His  passion  for  shooting  and  hunting 
led  him  into  a  sporting,  card-playing,  drinking  com- 
pany, but  science  was  his  redemption.  No  pursuit 
gave  him  so  much  pleasure  as  collecting  beetles,  of 
his  zeal  in  which  the  following  is  an  example :  "  One 
day,  on  tearing  off  some  old  bark,  I  saw  two  rare 
beetles,  and  seized  one  in  each  hand;  then  I  saw  a 
third  and  new  kind,  which  I  could  not  bear  to  lose, 
so  I  popped  the  one  which  I  held  in  my  right  hand 
into  my  mouth.  Alas!  it  ejected  some  intensely 
acrid  fluid,  which  burnt  my  tongue  so  that  I  was 
forced  to  spit  the  beetle  out,  which  was  lost,  as  was 
the  third  one." 

Happily  for  his  ftiture  career,  and  therefore  for 
the  interests  of  science,  Darwin  became  intimate  with 
men  like  Whewell,  Henslow,  and  Sedgwick,  while  the 
reading  of  Humboldt's  Personal  Narrative,  and  of 
Sir  John  Herschel's  Introduction  to   Natural   Phi- 


I30 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


losophy,  stirred  up  in  him  "  a  burning  zeal  to  add 
even  the  most  humble  contribution  to  the  noble 
structure  of  Natural  Science."  The  vow  to  eschew 
geology  was  quickly  broken  when  he  came  under 
the  spell  of  Sedgwick's  influence,  but  it  was  the 
friendship  of  Henslow  that  determined  his  after 
career,  and  prevented  him  from  becoming  the  "  Rev. 
Charles  Darwin."  For  on  his  return  from  a  geo- 
logical tour  in  Wales  with  Sedgwick  he  found  a  letter 
from  Henslow  awaiting  him,  the  purport  of  which 
is  in  the  following  extract: — 

''  I  have  been  asked  by  Peacock  (Lowndean 
Professor  of  Astronomy  at  Cambridge)  to  recom- 
mend him  a  naturalist  as  companion  to  Captain 
Fitz-Roy,  employed  by  Government  to  survey  the 
southern  extremity  of  America.  I  have  stated  that 
I  consider  you  to  be  the  best- qualified  person  I  know 
of  who  is  likely  to  undertake  such  a  situation." 

In  connection  with  this  the  following  memoran- 
dum from  Darwin's  pocket-book  of  1831  is  of  in- 
terest:— "  Returned  to  Shrewsbury  at  end  of  August. 
Refused  ofifer  of  voyage." 

This  refusal  was  given  at  the  instance  of  his 
father,  who  objected  to  the  scheme  as  "  wild  and 
unsettling,  and  as  disreputable  to  his  character  as  a 
clergyman  "  ;  but  he  soon  yielded  on  the  advice  of 
his  brother-in-law,  Josiah  Wedgwood,  and  on  Dar- 
win's plea  that  he  "  should  be  deuced  clever  to  spend 
more  than  his  allowance  whilst  on  board  the  Beagle." 
On  this  his  father  answered  with  a  smile,  "  But  they 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


131 


tell  me  you  are  very  clever."  It  is  amusing  to  find 
that  Darwin  narrowly  escaped  being  rejected  by 
Fitz-Roy,  who,  as  a  disciple  of  Lavater,  doubted 
whether  a  man  with  such  a  nose  as  Darwin's  "  could 
possess  sufficient  energy  and  determination  for  the 
voyage." 

The  details  of  that  voyage,  the  first  of  the  two 
memorable  events  in  Darwin's  otherwise  unadventur- 
ous  life,  are  set  down  in  delightful  narrative  in  his 
Naturalist's  Voyage  Round  the  World,  and  it  will 
suffice  to  quote  a  passage  from  the  autobiography 
bearing  on  the  significance  of  the  materials  collected 
during  his  five  years'  absence. 

During  the  voyage  of  the  Beagle  I  had  been  deeply  im- 
pressed by  discovering  in  the  Pampean  formation  great  fossil 
animals  covered  with  armour  like  that  on  the  existing  arma- 
dillos ;  secondly,  by  the  manner  in  which  closely  allied  animals 
replace  one  another  in  proceeding  southwards  over  the  con- 
tinent ;  and  thirdly,  by  the  South  American  character  of  most 
of  the  productions  of  the  Galapagos  Archipelago,  and  more 
especially  by  the  manner  in  which  they  differ  slightly  on  each 
island  of  the  group,  none  of  the  islands  appearing  to  be  very 
ancient  in  a  geological  sense.  It  was  evident  that  such  facts 
as  these,  as  well  as  many  others,  could  only  be  explained  on 
the  supposition  that  species  gradually  became  modified ;  and 
the  subject  haunted  me.  But  it  was  equally  evident  that 
"  none  of  the  evolutionary  theories  then  current  in  the  scien- 
tific world  "  could  account  for  the  innumerable  cases  in  which 
organisms  of  every  kind  are  beautifully  adapted  to  their  habits 
of  life.  ...  I  had  always  been  much  struck  by  such  adapta- 
tions, and  until  these  could  be  explained,  it  seemed  to  me 
almost  useless  to  endeavour  to  prove  by  indirect  evidence  that 
species  have  been  modified.  ...  In  October,  1838,  that  is, 


132 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


fifteen  months  after  I  had  begun  my  systematic  inquiry,  I  hap- 
pened to  read  for  amusement  Malthus  on  Population,  and  being 
well  prepared  to  appreciate  the  struggle  for  existence  which 
everywhere  goes  on,  from  long-continued  observations  of  the 
habits  of  plants  and  animals,  it  at  once  struck  me  that  under 
these  circumstances  favourable  variations  would  tend  to  be 
preserved,  and  unfavourable  ones  destroyed.  The  result  of 
this  would  be  the  formation  of  new  species. 

Shortly  after  his  return  he  settled  in  London,  pre- 
pared his  journal  and  manuscripts  of  observations  for 
pubHcation,  and  opened,  he  says,  under  date  of  July, 
1837,  "  my  first  note-book  for  facts  in  relation  to  the 
origin  of  species,  about  which  I  had  long  reflected, 
and  never  ceased  working  for  the  next  twenty  years." 
He  acted  for  two  years  as  one  of  the  honorary  secre- 
taries of  the  Geological  Society,  which  brought  him 
into  close  relations  with  Lyell,  and,  as  his  health 
then  allowed  him  to  go  into  society,  he  saw  a  good 
deal  of  prominent  literary  and  scientific  contem- 
poraries. 

In  the  autumn  of  1842,  two  years  and  eight 
months  after  his  marriage  with  his  first  cousin, 
Emma  Wedgwood,  who  died  in  October  last  (1896), 
Darwin  removed  from  London,  the  air  and  social 
demands  of  which  were  alike  unsuited  to  his  health, 
and  finally  fixed  upon  a  house  in  the  secluded  village 
of  Down,  near  Beckenham,  where  he  spent  the  rest 
of  his  days.  Henceforth  the  life  of  Darwin  is  merged 
in  the  books  in  which,  from  time  to  time,  he  gave 
the  result  of  his  long  years  of  patient  observation 
and  inquiry,  from  the  epoch-making  Origin  to  the 


MODERN  EVOLUTION, 


"^Zl 


monograph  on  earthworms.  With  bad  health,  ap- 
parently due  to  gouty  tendencies  aggravated  by 
chronic  sea-sickness  during  his  voyage;  with  nights 
that  never  gave  unbroken  sleep;  and  days  that  were 
never  passed  without  prostrating  pain;  he  might 
well  have  felt  justified  in  doing  nothing  whatever. 
But  he  was  saved  from  the  accursed  monotony  of  a 
wealthy  invalid's  Hfe  by  his  insatiate  delight  in 
searching  for  that  solution  of  the  problem  of  the 
mutability  of  species  which  time  would  not  fail  to 
bring.  In  this,  he  tells  us,  he  forgot  his  "  daily  dis- 
comfort," and  thus  was  delivered  from  morbid  intro- 
spection. 

Darwin  worked  at  his  rough  notes  on  the  varia- 
tion of  animals  and  plants  under  domestication,  add- 
ing facts  collected  by  "  printed  enquiries,  by  con- 
versations with  skilful  breeders  and  gardeners,  and 
by  extensive  reading,"  gleams  of  light  coming  till 
he  says  that  he  is  "  almost  convinced  that  species 
are  not  (it  is  like  confessing  a  murder)  immutable." 
But  he  was  still  groping  in  the  dark  as  to  the  appH- 
cation  of  selection  to  wild  plants  and  animals,  until, 
as  remarked  above,  the  chance  reading  of  Malthus 
suggested  a  working  theory.  A  brief  sketch  of  this 
theory,  written  out  in  pencil  in  1842,  was  elaborated 
in  1844  into  an  essay  of  two  hundred  and  thirty 
pages.  The  importance  attached  to  this  was  shown 
in  a  letter  which  Darwin  then  addressed  to  his  wife, 
charging  her,  in  the  event  of  his  death,  to  apply 
£400  to  the  expense  of  publication.     He  also  named 


134 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


certain  competent  men  from  whom  an  editor  might 
be  chosen,  preference  being  given  to  Sir  Charles 
(then  Mr.  Lyell,  at  whose  advice  Darwin  began  to 
write  out  his  views  on  a  scale  three  or  four  times  as 
extensive  as  that  in  which  they  appeared  in  the 
Origin  of  Species.  Their  publication  in  an  abstract 
form  was  hastened  by  the  receipt,  in  June,  1858,  of 
a  paper,  containing  "  exactly  the  same  theory,"  from 
Mr.  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  at  Ternate  in  the 
Moluccas.  This  reference  to  that  distinguished  ex- 
plorer, will,  before  the  story  of  the  coincident  dis- 
covery is  further  told,  fitly  introduce  a  sketch  of  his 
career. 

Alfred  Russel  Wallace  was  born  at  Usk,  in 
Monmouthshire,  on  the  8th  of  January,  1823.  He  was 
educated  at  Hereford  Grammar  School,  and  in  his 
fourteenth  year  began  the  study  of  land-surveying 
and  architecture  under  an  elder  brother.  Quick- 
witted and  observing,  he  studied  a  great  deal  more 
on  his  own  account  in  his  journeyings  over  England 
and  Wales,  the  results  of  which  abide  in  the  wide 
range  of  subjects — scientific,  political,  and  social — 
engaging  his  active  pen  from  early  manhood  to  the 
present  day. 

About  1844  he  exchanged  the  theodolite  for  the 
ferule,  and  became  EngHsh  master  in  the  Collegiate 
School  at  Leicester,  in  which  town  he  found  a  con- 
genial friend  in  the  person  of  his  future  fellow-trav- 
eller, Henry  Walter  Bates.  Bates  was  then  employed 
in  his  father's  hosiery  warehouse,  from  which  he 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


^35 


escaped,  as  often  as  the  long  working  hours  then 
prevaiHng  allowed,  into  the  fields  with  his  collecting- 
box.  Both  schoolmaster  and  shopman  were  ardent 
naturalists,  Mr.  Wallace,  as  he  tells  us,  being  at  that 
time  "  chiefly  interested  in  botany,"  but  he  after- 
ward took  up  his  friend's  favourite  pursuit  of 
entomology.  The  writer,  when  preparing  his  memoir 
of  Bates  (which  prefaces  a  reprint  of  the  first  edition 
of  the  delightful  Naturalist  on  the  Amazons),  learned 
from  Mr.  Wallace  that  in  early  life  he  did  not  keep 
letters  from  Bates  and  other  correspondents.  But, 
fortunately,  among  Bates's  papers,  there  was  a 
bundle  of  interesting  letters  from  Wallace  written 
between  June,  1845,  and  October,  1847,  from  Neath, 
in  South  Wales,  to  which  town  he  had  removed. 
In  one  of  these,  dated  the  9th  of  November,  1845, 
Wallace  asks  Bates  if  he  had  read  the  Vestiges  of  the 
Natural  History  of  Creation,  and  a  subsequent  letter 
indicates  that  Bates  had  not  formed  a  favourable 
opinion  of  the  book.  A  later  letter  is  interesting 
as  conveying  an  estimate  of  Darwin.  "  I  first,"  Wal- 
lace says,  "  read  Darwin's  Journal  three  or  four  years 
back,  and  have  lately  re-read  it.  As  the  journal  of 
a  scientific  traveller,  it  is  second  only  to  Humboldt's 
Personal  Narrative;  as  a  work  of  general  interest, 
perhaps  superor  to  it.  He  is  an  ardent  admirer  and 
most  able  supporter  of  Mr.  Lyell's  views.  His  style 
of  writing  I  very  much  admire,  so  free  from  all 
labour,  affectation,  or  egotism,  yet  so  full  of  interest 
and  original  thought." 


136  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

But,  of  still  greater  moment,  is  a  letter  in  which 
Wallace  tells  Bates  that  he  begins  "  to  feel  dissatis- 
fied with  a  mere  local  collection.  I  should  like  to 
take  some  one  family  to  study  thoroughly,  princi- 
pally with  a  view  to  the  theory  of  the  origin  of 
species."  The  two  friends  had  often  discussed 
schemes  for  going  abroad  to  explore  some  virgin 
region,  nor  could  their  scanty  means  prevent  the 
fulfilment  of  a  scheme  which  has  enriched  both  sci- 
ence and  the  literature  of  travel.  The  choice  of 
country  to  explore  was  settled  by  Wallace's  perusal 
of  a  little  book  entitled  A  Voyage  up  the  River 
Amazons,  including  a  Residence  in  Para,  by  W.  H. 
Edwards,  an  American  tourist,  published  in  Murray's 
Family  Library,  in  1847.  ^^  the  autumn  of  that 
year  Wallace  proposed  a  joint  expedition  to  the 
river  Amazons  for  the  purpose  of  exploring  the 
Natural  History  of  its  banks;  the  plan  being  to 
make  a  collection  of  objects,  dispose  of  the  dupH- 
cates  in  London  to  pay  expenses,  and  gather  facts, 
as  Mr.  Wallace  expressed  it  in  one  of  his  letters, 
"  towards  solving  the  problem  of  the  origin  of 
species." 

The  choice  was  a  happy  one,  for,  except  by  the 
German  zoologist  Von  Spix,  and  the  botanist  Von 
Martins  in  1817-20,  and  subsequently  by  Count  de 
Castelnau,  no  exploration  of  a  region  so  rich  and 
interesting  to  the  biologist  had  been  attempted. 
Early  in  1848  Bates  and  Wallace  met  in  London 
to  study  South  American  animals  and  plants  in  the 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


137 


principal  collections,  and  afterward  went  to  Chats- 
worth  to  gain  information  about  orchids,  which  they 
proposed  to  collect  in  the  moist  tropical  forests  and 
send  home. 

On  26th  of  April,  1848,  they  embarked  at  Liver- 
pool in  a  barque  of  only  192  tons  burden,  one  of  the 
few  ships  then  trading  to  Para,  to  which  seaport  of 
the  Amazons  region  a  swift  passage,  "  straight  as 
an  arrow,"  brought  them  on  28th  of  May. 

The  travellers  soon  settled  in  a  rocmha,  or 
country-house,  a  mile  and  half  from  Para,  and  close 
to  the  forest,  which  came  down  to  their  doors.  Like 
other  towns  along  the  Amazons,  Para  stands  on 
ground  cleared  from  the  forest  that  stretches,  a  well- 
nigh  pathless  jungle  of  luxuriant  primeval  vegeta- 
tion, two  thousand  miles  inland.  In  that  paradise  of 
the  naturalist,  the  collectors  gathered  consignments 
which  met  with  ready  sale  in  London,  and  thus 
spent  a  couple  of  years  in  pursuits  moderately  re- 
munerative and  wholly  pleasurable,  till,  on  reach- 
ing Barra,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Negro,  one  thou- 
sand miles  from  Para,  in  March,  1850,  Bates  and 
Wallace,  who  was  accompanied  by  his  younger 
brother,  parted  company,  "  finding  it  more  conven- 
ient to  explore  separate  districts  and  collect  inde- 
pendently." Wallace  took  the  northern  parts  and 
tributaries  of  the  Amazons,  and  Bates  kept  to  the 
main  stream,  which,  from  the  direction  it  seems  to 
take  at  the  fork  of  the  Rio  Negro,  is  called  the  Upper 
Amazons  or  the  SoHmoens.  Different  in  character 
10 


138  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION.  ^ 

and  climatic  conditions  from  the  Lower  Amazons,  it 
flows  through  a  *'  vast  plain  about  a  thousand  miles 
in  length,  and  five  hundred  or  six  hundred  miles  in 
breadth  covered  with  one  uniform,  lofty,  impervious, 
and  humid  forest."  Bates  stayed  in  the  country  till 
June,  1859,  but  Wallace  left  in  1852,  and  in  the 
following  year  published  an  account  of  his  journey 
under  the  title  of  Travels  on  the  Amazon  and  Rio 
Negro.  That  book  was  written  under  the  serious 
disadvantage  of  the  destruction  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  notes  and  specimens  by  the  burning  of  the 
ship  in  which  Mr.  Wallace  took  passage  on  his  home- 
ward voyage.  That  it  remains  one  of  the  select  com- 
pany of  works  of  travel  for  which  demand  is  continu- 
ous is  evidenced  in  a  reprint  which  appeared  in  1891. 
If  it  affords  few  hints  of  the  author's  bent  of  mind 
toward  the  question  of  the  origin  of  species,  it  shows 
what  interest  was  being  aroused  within  him  over  the 
allied  subject  of  the  geographical  distribution  of 
plants  and  animals  which  Mr.  Wallace  was  to  make 
so  markedly  his  own. 

In  1854  he  sailed  for  the  Malay  Archipelago, 
where  nearly  eight  years  were  spent  in  exploring  the 
region  from  Sumatra  to  New  Guinea.  The  large 
and  varied  outcome  of  that  labour  was  embodied  in 
numerous  papers  communicated  to  learned  societies 
and  scientific  journals,  and  in  a  series  of  delightful 
books  from  The  Malay  Archipelago,  first  published 
in  1869,  to  Island  Life,  published  in  1880.  Among 
the  minor  results  of  his  extensive  travels — for  all 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


139 


else  that  Wallace  did  pales  before  the  great  discovery 
which  links  his  name  with  Darwin's — was  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  line,  known  as  ''  Wallace's,"  which 
divides  the  Malay  Archipelago  into  two  main  groups, 
"  Indo-Malaysia  and  Austro-Malaysia,  marked  by 
distinct  species  and  groups  of  animals."  That  line 
runs  through  a  deep  channel  separating  the  islands 
of  Bali  and  Lombok;  the  plants  and  animals  on 
which,  although  but  fifteen  miles  of  water  separate 
them,  differ  from  each  other  even  more  than  do  the 
islands  of  Great  Britain  and  Japan.  "  A  similar 
line,  but  somewhat  farther  east,  divides  on  the  whole 
the  Malay  from  the  Papuan  races  of  man." 

Among  the  more  fugitive  contributions  which 
mark  Mr.  Wallace's  approach  to  a  solution  of  the 
problem  in  quest  of  which  he  and  Bates  went  to  the 
Amazons  is  a  paper  On  the  Law  which  has  Regu- 
lated the  Introduction  of  New  Species,  published  in 
the  Annals  and  Magazine  of  Natural  History,  1855. 
In  this  he  shows  that  some  form  of  evolution  of  one 
species  from  another  is  needed  to  explain  the  geo- 
logical and  geographical  facts  of  which  examples  are 
given. 

In  the  interesting  preface  to  the  reprint  of  the 
famous  paper  On  the  Tendencies  of  Varieties  to  de- 
part Indefinitely  from  the  Original  Type,  Mr.  Wal- 
lace recites  the  several  researches  which  he  made  in 
quest  of  that  ''  form  "  till,  when  lying  ill  with  fever  at 
Ternate,  in  February,  1858,  something  led  him  to 
think  of  the  "  positive  checks  "  described  by  Malthus 


I40 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


in  his  Essay  on  Population,  a  book  which  he  had 
read  some  years  before.  Oddly  enough,  therefore, 
the  honours  lie  with  the  maligned  Haileybury  Rev- 
erend Professor  of  Political  Economy  in  furnishing 
both  Darwin  and  Wallace  with  the  clue.  The  "  posi- 
tive checks  " — war,  disease,  famine — Wallace  felt 
must  act  even  more  effectively  on  the  lower  animals 
than  on  man,  because  of  their  more  rapid  rate  of 
multiplication.  And  he  tells  us,  in  the  prefatory 
note  to  a  reprint  of  his  paper,  "  there  suddenly 
flashed  on  me  the  idea  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
and  in  the  two  hours  that  elapsed  before  my  ague 
fit  was  over  I  had  thought  out  the  whole  of  the 
theory,  and  in  the  two  succeeding  evenings  wrote  it 
out  in  full  and  sent  it  by  the  next  post  to  Mr.  Dar- 
win," asking  him,  if  he  thought  well  of  the  essay,  to 
send  it  to  Lyell.  This  Darwin  did  with  the  following 
remarks:  "  Your  words  have  come  true  with  a  ven- 
geance— that  I  should  be  forestalled.  ...  I  never 
saw  a  more  striking  coincidence;  if  Wallace  had 
my  MS.  sketch  written  out  in  1842,  he  could  not  have 
made  a  better  short  abstract!  Even  his  terms  now 
stand  as  heads  of  my  chapters.  Please  return  me  the 
MS.,  which  he  does  not  say  he  wishes  me  to  publish; 
but  I  shall,  of  course,  at  once  write  and  offer  to  send 
to  any  journal.  So  all  my  originality,  whatever  it 
may  amount  to,  will  be  smashed,  though  my  book, 
if  it  will  ever  have  any  value,  will  not  be  deteriorated, 
as  all  the  labour  consists  in  the  application  of  the 
theory."      Darwin  came  out  well  in  this  business. 


MODERN  EVOLUTION, 


141 


For  to  have  hit  upon  a  theory  which  interprets  so 
large  a  question  as  the  origin  and  causes  of  modifica- 
tion of  Hfe-forms;  to  keep  on  turning  it  over  and 
over  again  in  the  mind  for  twenty  long  years;  to 
spend  the  working  hours  of  every  day  in  collection 
and  verification  of  facts  for  and  against  it;  and  then 
to  have  another  man  launching  a  "  bolt  from  the 
blue  "  in  the  shape  of  a  paper  with  exactly  the  same 
theory,  might  well  disturb  even  a  philosopher  of 
Darwin's  serenity. 

However,  both  Hooker  and  Lyell  had  read  his 
sketch  a  dozen  years  before,  and  it  was  arranged  by 
them,  not  as  considering  claims  of  priority,  which 
have  too  often  been  occasion  of  unworthy  wrangling, 
but  in  the  ''  interests  of  science  generally,"  that  an 
abstract  of  Darwin's  manuscript  should  be  read  with 
Wallace's  paper  at  a  meeting  of  the  Linnsean  Society 
on  the  1st  of  July,  1858.  The  full  title  of  the  joint  com- 
munication was  On  the  Tendency  of  Species  to  form 
Varieties,  and  on  the  Perpetuation  of  Varieties  and 
Species  by  Natural  Selection.  Sir  Joseph  Hooker, 
describing  the  gathering,  says  that  "  the  interest  ex- 
cited was  intense,  but  the  subject  was  too  novel  and 
too  ominous  for  the  old  school  to  enter  the  lists  be- 
fore armouring.  After  the  meeting  it  was  talked 
over  with  bated  breath.  Lyell's  approval,  and  per- 
haps, in  a  small  way  mine,  as  his  lieutenant  in  the 
affair,  rather  overawed  the  Fellows,  who  would 
otherwise  have  flown  out  against  the  doctrine.  We 
had,  too,  the  vantage  ground  of  being  familiar  with 


142  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

the  authors  and  their  theme."  Nothing  can  deprive 
Mr.  Wallace  of  the  honour  due  to  him  as  the  co- 
originator  of  the  theory,  which,  regarded  in  its  appli- 
cation to  the  origin,  history,  and  destiny  of  man,  in- 
volves the  most  momentous  changes  in  belief,  and 
there  may  be  fitly  quoted  here  his  own  modest  and, 
doubtless,  correct,  assessment  of  limitations  which  in 
no  wise  invalidate  his  high  claims.  In  the  Preface 
to  his  Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selec- 
tion (1870),  Mr.  Wallace  says  the  book  will  prove 
that  he  both  saw  at  the  time  the  value  and  scope  of 
the  law  which  he  had  discovered,  and  has  since  been 
able  to  apply  to  some  purpose  in  a  few  original  lines 
of  investigation.  *'  But,"  he  adds,  "  here  my  claims 
cease.  I  have  felt  all  my  life,  and  I  still  feel,  the 
most  sincere  satisfaction  that  Mr.  Darwin  had  been 
at  work  long  before  me,  and  that  it  was  not  left  for 
me  to  attempt  to  write  the  Origin  of  Species.  I 
have  long  since  measured  my  own  strength,  and 
know  full  well  that  it  would  be  quite  unequal  to 
that  task.  Far  abler  men  than  myself  may  confess 
that  they  have  not  that  untiring  patience  in  accumu- 
lating, and  that  wonderful  skill  in  using,  large  masses 
of  facts  of  the  most  varied  kind — that  wide  and 
accurate  physiological  knowledge — that  acuteness  in 
devising  and  skill  in  carrying  out  experiments,  and 
that  admirable  style  of  composition  at  once  clear, 
persuasive,  and  judicial — qualities  which,  in  their 
harmonious  combination,  mark  out  Mr.  Darwin  as 
the  man,  perhaps  of  all  men  now  living,  best  fitted 


MODERN  EVOLUTION,  1 43 

for  the  great  work  he  has  undertaken  and  accom- 
plished." 

In  a  letter  to  Wallace  dated  20th  April,  1870, 
Darwin  says,  "  There  has  never  been  passed  on  me, 
or,  indeed,  on  any  one,  a  higher  eulogium  than  yours. 
I  wish  that  I  fully  deserved  it.  Your  modesty  and 
candour  are  very  far  from  new  to  rfie.  I  hope  it  is 
a  satisfaction  to  you  to  reflect — and  very  few  things 
in  my  life  have  been  more  satisfactory  to  me — that 
we  have  never  felt  any  jealousy  towards  each  other, 
though  in  one  sense  rivals.  I  believe  I  can  say  this 
of  myself  with  truth,  and  I  am  absolutely  sure  it  is 
true  of  you." 

But  on  one  question,  and  that  round  which  dis- 
cussion still  rages,  the  friends  were  poles  asunder. 
There  had  been  correspondence  between  them  as 
to  the  bearing  of  the  theory  of  natural  selection  on 
man,  and  in  April,  1869,  Darwin  wrote,  "  As  you 
expected,  I  differ  grievously  from  you,  and  I  am 
very  sorry  for  it.  I  can  see  no  necessity  for  calling 
in  an  additional  and  proximate  cause  in  regard  to 
man."  In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  his  comprehensive 
book  on  Darwinism,  Wallace  admits  the  action  of 
natural  selection  in  man's  physical  structure.  This 
structure  classes  him  among  the  vertebrates;  the 
mode  of  human  suckling  classes  him  among  the 
mammals;  his  blood,  his  muscles,  and  his  nerves, 
the  structure  of  his  heart  with  its  veins  and  arteries, 
his  lungs  and  his  whole  respiratory  and  circulatory 


144 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


systems,  all  closely  correspond  to  those  of  other 
mammals,  and  are  often  almost  identical  with  them. 
He  possesses  the  same  number  of  limbs,  terminating 
in  the  same  number  of  digits,  as  belong  fundamental- 
ly to  the  mammals.  His  senses  are  identical  with 
theirs,  and  his  organs  of  sense  are  the  same  in  num- 
ber and  occupy  the  same  relative  position.  Every 
detail  of  structure  which  is  common  to  the  mammalia 
as  a  class  is  found  also  in  man,  while  he  differs  from 
them  only  in  such  ways  and  degrees  as  the  various 
species  or  groups  of  mammals  differ  from  each  other. 
He  is,  like  them,  begotten  by  sexual  conjugation; 
like  them,  developed  from  a  fertilized  ^%'g,  and  in 
his  embryonic  condition  passes  through  stages  re- 
capitulating the  variety  of  enormously  remote  an- 
cestors of  whom  he  is  the  perfected  descendant. 
Full-grown,  he  appears  as  most  nearly  allied  to  the 
anthropoid  or  man-like  apes;  so  much  does  his 
skeleton  resemble  theirs  that,  comparing  him  with 
the  chimpanzee,  we  find,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
bone  for  bone,  differing  only  in  size,  arrangement, 
and  proportion. 

Mr.  Wallace,  therefore,  rejected  the  idea  of  man's 
special  creation  ''  as  being  entirely  unsupported  by 
facts,  as  well  as  in  the  highest  degree  improbable." 
But  he  would  not  allow  that  natural  selection  explains 
the  origin  of  man's  spiritual  and  intellectual  nature. 
These,  he  argues,  "  must  have  had  another  origin, 
and  for  this  origin  we  can  only  find  an  adequate 
cause  in  the  unseen  universe  of  Spirit."     More  de- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  145 

tailed  treatment  of  this  argument  will  be  given  fur- 
ther on;  here  reference  is  made  to  it  as  furnishing 
the  explanation  why  Mr.  Wallace  kept  not  his  ''  first 
estate,"  and  dropped  out  of  the  ranks  of  Pioneers  of 
Evolution.  Many  subjects,  as  hinted  above,  have 
occupied  his  facile  pen — land  nationalization,  causes 
of  depression  in  trade,  labourers'  allotments,  vaccina- 
tion, et  hoc  genus  omne;  showing,  at  least,  the  promi- 
nence which  all  social  matters  occupy  in  the  minds  of 
the  leading  exponents  of  the  theory  of  Evolution. 
For  of  this,  as  will  be  seen,  both  Herbert  Spencer 
and  Huxley  supply  cogent  examples  in  their  applica- 
tion of  that  theory  to  human  interests.  But  it  is  as  a 
defender,  although  on  lines  of  his  own  not  wholly 
orthodox,  of  supernaturalism,  with  attendant  beliefs 
in  miracles  and  the  grosser  forms  of  spiritualism, 
that  Mr.  Wallace  appears  in  the  character  of  oppo- 
nent to  the  inclusion  of  man's  psychical  nature  as  a 
product  of  Evolution. 

The  arresting  influence  of  these  views  when 
backed  by  honest,  sincere,  and  eminent  men  of  the 
type  of  Mr.  Wallace,  and  w^hen  also  supported  by 
several  prominent  men  of  science,  renders  it  desirable 
to  show  that  modern  psychism  is  but  savage  animism 
''  writ  large,"  and  wholly  explicable  on  the  theory  of 
continuity.  In  his  book  on  Miracles  and  Modern 
Spiritualism,  of  which  a  revised  edition,  with  chapters 
on  Apparitions  and  Phantasms,  was  issued  in  1895, 
Mr.  Wallace  contends  that  "  Spiritualism,  if  true, 
furnishes  such  proofs  of  the  existence  of  ethereal 


146  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

beings  and  of  their  power  to  act  upon  matter,  as 
must  revolutionise  philosophy.  It  demonstrates  the 
actuality  of  forms  of  matter  and  modes  of  being  be- 
fore inconceivable;  it  demonstrates  mind  without 
brain,  and  intelligence  disconnected  from  what  we 
know  as  the  material  body;  and  it  thus  cuts  away  all 
presumption  against  our  continued  existence  after 
the  physical  body  is  disorganised  and  dissolved.  Yet 
more,  it  demonstrates,  as  completely  as  the  fact  can 
be  demonstrated,  that  the  so-called  dead  are  still 
alive;  that  our  friends  are  still  with  us,  though  un- 
seen, and  guide  and  strengthen  us  when,  owing  to 
absence  of  proper  conditions,  they  cannot  make  their 
presence  known.  It  thus  furnishes  a  proof  of  a  future 
life  which  so  many  crave,  and  for  want  of  which  so 
many  live  and  die  in  anxious  doubt,  so  many  in  posi- 
tive disbelief.  It  substitutes  a  definite,  real,  and  prac- 
tical conviction  for  a  vague,  theoretical,  and  unsatis- 
fying faith.  It  furnishes  actual  knowledge  on  a 
matter  of  vital  importance  to  all  men,  and  as  to  which 
the  wisest  men  and  most  advanced  thinkers  have 
held,  and  still  hold,  that  no  knowledge  was  attain- 
able." 

This  claim,  this  tremendous  claim,  on  behalf  of 
the  phenomena  of  spiritualism  to  supply  an  answer 
to  "the  question  of  questions;  the  ascertainment  of 
man's  relation  to  the  universe  of  things ;  whence  our 
race  has  come;  to  what  goal  we  are  tending,"  rests 
on  the  assumption  with  which  Mr.  Wallace  starts, 
*'  Spiritualism,  if  truer 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  147 

The  essay  from  which  the  above  passages  are 
quoted  is  preceded  by  references  in  detail  to  a  con- 
siderable number  of  cases  of  "the  appearance  of 
preterhuman  or  spiritual  beings,"  the  evidence  of 
which  "  is  as  good  and  definite  as  it  is  possible  for 
any  evidence  of  any  fact  to  be."  These  ghost-stories, 
contrasted  with  the  full-flavoured  eerie  tales  of  old, 
are  feebly  monotonous.  The  apparatus  of  the 
medium  is  limited :  the  phenomena  are  largely  of  the 
"  horse-play  "  order.  Through  the  whole  series  we 
vainly  seek  for  some  ennobling  and  exalting  concep- 
tion of  a  life  beyond,  some  ghmpses  "  behind  the 
veil,"  only  to  find  that  the  shades  are  but  diluted  or 
vulgarized  parodies  of  ourselves ;  or  that  "  the  filthy 
are  filthy  still,"  like  the  departed  bargee  whose 
"  communicating  intelligence  "  (we  quote  from  a  re- 
cent book  on  spiritualism  entitled  The  Great  Secret) 
was  as  coarse-mouthed  as  when  in  the  flesh.  In 
considering,  if  it  be  deemed  worth  while,  the  evi- 
dence of  genuineness  of  the  occurrences,  we  are 
thrown,  not  on  the  honesty,  but  on  the  competency 
of  the  witnesses.  The  most  eminent  among  these 
show  themselves  persons  of  undisciplined  emotions. 
The  distinguished  physicist.  Professor  Oliver  Lodge, 
who  has  been  described  to  the  writer  by  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  Professor  as  "  longing  to  believe  some- 
thing," argues  that  in  dealing  with  psychical  phenom- 
ena, a  hazy,  muzzy  state  of  mind  is  better  than  a 
mind  "  keenly  awake  "  and  "  on  the  spot "  (see  Ad- 
dress to  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,   Pro- 


148  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

ceedings,  part  xxvi,  pp.  14,  15).  With  this  may  be 
compared  a  Mohammedan  receipt  for  summoning 
spirits  given  in  Klunzinger's  Upper  Egypt  (p.  386): 
''  Fast  seven  days  in  a  lonely  place,  and  take  incense 
with  you.  Read  a  chapter  looi  times  from  the 
Koran.  That  is  the  secret,  and  you  will  see  inde- 
scribable wonders ;  drums  will  be  beaten  beside  you, 
and  flags  hoisted  over  your  head,  and  you  will  see 
spirits."  Thus  have  the  dreamy  Oriental  Moslem 
and  the  self-hypnotized  Western  professor  met  to- 
gether to  elicit  truth  from  trance. 

Concerning  the  competence  of  Mr.  Wallace  him- 
self to  weigh,  unbiassed,  the  evidence  which  comes 
before  him,  it  suffices  to  cite  the  case  of  Eusapia 
Paladino,  a  Neapolitan  "  medium,"  who,  in  the  words 
of  one  of  her  most  ardent  dupes,  became  "  the  un- 
expected instrument  of  driving  conviction  as  to  the 
reality  of  psychical  manifestations  by  the  invisible 
into  the  minds  of  many  scientists."  A  number  of 
distinguished  savants  testified  to  the  genuineness  of 
the  woman's  performances  in  Professor  Richet's  cot- 
tage on  the  He  Roubant  in  the  autumn  of  1893.  It 
was  the  serious  and  complete  conviction  of  all  of 
them  (Lodge,  Richet,  Ochorowicz,  and  others)  that 
"  on  no  single  occasion  during  the  occurrence  of  an 
event  recorded  by  them  was  a  hand  of  Eusapia's  free 
to  execute  any  trick  whatever."  Mr.  Maskelyne,  such 
testimony  notwithstanding,  declared  that  the  whole 
business  was  "  the  sorriest  of  trickeries,"  and,  to  the 
credit  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  it  under- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


149 


took  the  expense  of  bringing  Eusapia  to  England 
for  the  purpose  of  testing  the  genuineness  of  her 
doings.  She  was  taken  to  a  house  in  Cambridge, 
and  detected  as  a  vulgar  impostor.  Yet  Mr.  Wallace, 
in  the  new  edition  of  his  Miracles  and  Modern  Spirit- 
ualism, describes  all  the  phenomena  occurring  at 
Professor  Richet's  house  as  "  not  explicable  as  the 
result  of  any  known  physical  causes,"  and,  in  a  sub- 
sequent explanatory  letter  to  the  Daily  Chronicle 
of  24th  of  January,  1896,  expresses  the  opinion  that 
*'  the  Cambridge  experiments,  so  far  as  they  are 
recorded,  only  prove  that  Eusapia  might  have  de- 
ceived, not  that  she  actually  and  consciously  did  so.'' 
The  integrity  of  Mr.  Wallace  is  not  to  be  doubted, 
but  what  becomes  of  his  competence  to  judge  when 
prejudice  bhnds  itself  to  facts?  Spirituahsm,  if  true, 
demonstrates  this  and  that  about  the  unseen;  but 
spiritualism,  proved  to  he  untrue,  lacks  half  the  dex- 
terity of  an  astute  conjurer,  and  the  whole  of  his 
honesty.  Every  scientific  man  recognises  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Conservation  of  Energy  as  a  fundamental 
canon.  But  with  those  who  regard  the  phenomena 
of  Spiritualism  as  "  not  explicable  "  except  by  super- 
natural causes,  it  would  seem  that  that  doctrine,  as 
also  the  not  unimportant  conditions  of  Time  and 
Space,  count  for  nothing.  When  we  read  their  re- 
ports of  the  behaviour  of  mediums  who  project  (of 
course,  in  the  dark)  "  abnormal  temporary  prolonga- 
tions "  like  pseudopodia,  we  should  feel  alike  de- 
pressed and  confounded  were  there  not  abundant 


150  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

proofs  what  wholly  untrustworthy  observers  scien- 
tific specialists  can  be  outside  their  own  domain.  As 
the  writer  has  remarked  elsewhere,  minds  of  this 
type  must  be  built  in  water-tight  compartments. 
They  show  how,  even  in  the  higher  culture,  the  force 
of  a  dominant  idea  may  suspend  or  narcotize  the 
reason  and  judgment,  and  contribute  to  the  rise  and 
spread  of  another  of  the  epidemic  delusions  of  which 
history  supplies  warning  examples. 

They  also  show  that  man's  senses  have  been  his 
arch-deceivers,  and  his  preconceptions  their  abettors, 
throughout  human  history;  that  advance  has  been 
possible  only  as  he  has  escaped  through  the  disci- 
pline of  the  intellect  from  the  illusive  impressions 
about  phenomena  which  the  senses  convey.  Upon 
this  matter  the  words  of  the  late  Dr.  Carpenter  may 
be  quoted,  words  the  more  weighty  because  they  are 
the  utterance  of  a  man  whose  philosophy  was  influ- 
enced by  deep  religious  convictions:  "With  every 
disposition  to  accept  facts  when  I  could  once  clearly 
satisfy  myself  that  they  were  facts,  I  have  had  to 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  whenever  I  have  been 
permitted  to  employ  such  tests  as  I  should  employ 
in  any  scientific  investigation,  there  was  either  inten- 
tional deception  on  the  part  of  interested  persons,  or 
else  self-deception  on  the  part  of  persons  who  were 
very  sober-minded  and  rational  upon  all  ordinary 
affairs  of  life."  He  adds  further:  *'  It  has  been  my 
business  lately  to  inquire  into  the  mental  condition 
of  some  of  the  individuals  who  have  reported  the 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  151 

most  remarkable  occurrences,  I  cannot — it  would 
not  be  fair — say  all  I  could  with  regard  to  that  men- 
tal condition;  but  I  can  only  say  this,  that  it  all  fits 
in  perfectly  well  with  the  result  of  my  previous 
studies  upon  the  subject,  viz.,  that  there  is  nothing 
too  strange  to,  be  believed  by  those  who  have  once 
surrendered  their  judgment  to  the  extent  of  accept- 
ing as  credible  things  which  common  sense  tells  us 
are  entirely  incredible." 

The  fact  abides  that  the  great  mass  of  super- 
natural beliefs  which  have  persisted  from  the  lower 
culture  till  now,  and  which  are  still  held  by  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  civilized  mankind,  ar^  re- 
ferable to  causes  concomitant  with  man's  mental 
development:  causes  operative  throughout  his  his- 
tory. The  low  intellectual  environment  of  his 
barbaric  past  was  constant  for  thousands  of  years, 
and  his  adaptation  thereto  was  complete.  The  in- 
trusion of  the  scientific  method  in  its  application  to 
man  disturbed  that  equilibrium.  But  this,  as  yet, 
only  superficially.  Like  the  foraminifera  that  persist 
in  the  ocean  depths,  the  great  majority  of  mankind 
have  remained,  but  slightly,  if  at  all,  modified;  thus 
illustrating  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  evolution  in 
their  psychical  history.  (For  that  doctrine  does  not 
imply  all-round  continuous  advance.  "  Let  us  never 
forget,"  Mr.  Spencer  says  in  Social  Statics,  "  that  the 
law  is — adaptation  to  circumstances,  be  they  what 
they  may.")  Therefore  the  superstitions  that  still 
dominate  the  life  of  man,  even  in  so-called  civilized 


152  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

centres,  are  no  stumbling-blocks  to  us.  They  are 
supports  along  the  path  of  inquiry,  because  we  ac- 
count for  their  persistence.  Thought  and  feeling 
have  a  common  base,  because  man  is  a  unit,  not  a 
duality.  But  the  exercise  of  the  one  has  been  active 
from  the  beginnings  of  his  history — indeed  we  know 
not  at  what  point  backward  we  can  classify  it  as 
human  or  quasi-human — while  the  other,  speaking 
comparatively,  has  but  recently  been  called  into  play. 
So  far  as  its  influence  on  the  modern  world  goes, 
may  we  not  say  that  it  began  at  least  in  the  domain 
of  scientific  naturalism  with  the  Ionian  philosophers? 

,    Emotionally,  we  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years 

\  old;  rationally,  we  are  embryos. 

In  other  words,  man  wondered  countless  ages 
before  he  reasoned;  because  feeling  travels  along 
the  line  of  least  resistance,  while  thought,  or  the 
challenge  by  inquiry — therefore  the  assumption  that 
there  may  be  two  sides  to  a  question — must  pursue 
a  path  obstructed  by  the  dominance  of  custom,  the 
force  of  imitation,  and  the  strength  of  prejudice  and 
fear.  It  is  here  that  anthropology,  notably  that 
psychical  branch  of  it  comprehended  under  folk-lore, 
takes  up  the  cue  from  the  momentous  doctrine  of 
heredity;  explains  the  persistence  of  the  primitive; 
and  the  causes  of  man's  tardy  escape  from  the  illu- 
sions of  the  senses,  and  the  general  conservatism  of 
human  nature.  "Born  into  life!  in  vain.  Opinions, 
those  or  these,  unalter'd  to  retain  the  obstinate 
mind  decrees,"  as  in  the  striking  illustration  cited  in 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


153 


Heine's  Travel-Pictures.  "  A  few  years  ago  Bullock 
dug  up  an  ancient  stone  idol  in  Mexico,  and  the 
next  day  he  found  that  it  had  been  crowned  during 
the  night  with  flowers.  And  yet  the  Spaniard  had 
exterminated  the  old  Mexican  religion  with  fire  and 
sword,  and  for  three  centuries  had  been  engaged  in 
ploughing  and  harrowing  their  minds  and  implanting 
the  seed  of  Christianity."  The  causes  of  error  and 
delusion,  and  of  the  spiritual  nightmares  of  olden 
time,  being  made  clear,  there  is  begotten  a  generous 
sympathy  with  that  which  empirical  notions  of 
human  nature  attributed  to  wilfulness  or  to  man's 
fall  from  a  high  estate.  Superstitions  which  are  the 
outcome  of  ignorance  can  only  awaken  pity.  Where 
the  corrective  of  knowledge  is  absent,  we  see  that 
it  could  not  be  otherwise.  Where  that  corrective 
is  present,  but  either  perverted  or  not  exercised,  pity 
is  supplanted  by  blame.  In  either  case,  we  learn  that 
the  art  of  life  largely  consists  in  that  control  of  the 
emotions  and  that  diversion  of  them  into  wholesome 
channels,  which  the  intellect,  braced  with  the  latest 
knowledge,  can  alone  effect. 

Therefore,  discarding  theories  of  revelation, 
spiritual  illumination,  and  other  assumed  supra- 
mundane  sources  of  knowledge,  sufficing  causes  of 
abnormal  mental  phenomena  are  found  in  abnormal 
working  of  the  mental  apparatus.  The  investiga- 
tion of  hallucinations  (Lat.  alucinor,  to  wander  in 
mind)  leaves  no  doubt  that  they  are  the  effect  of  a 
morbid  condition  of  that  intricate,  delicately  poised 


II 


154 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


structure,  the  nervous  system,  under  which  objects 
are  seen  and  sensations  felt  when  no  corresponding 
impression  has  been  made  through  the  medium  of 
the  senses.  When  the  nervous  system  is  out  of 
gear,  voices,  whether  divine  or  of  the  dead,  may  be 
heard;  and  actual  figures  may  be  seen.  A  mental 
image  becomes  a  visual  image;  an  imagined  pain 
a  real  pain,  as  the  great  physiologist,  John  Hunter, 
testified  when  he  said,  "  I  am  confident  that  I  can 
fix  my  attention  to  any  part  until  I  have  a  sensation 
in  that  part."  Shakespere  portrays  the  like  condition 
when  Macbeth  attempts  to  clutch  the  dagger  where- 
with to  stab  Duncan: 

There's  no  such  thing  ; 
It  is  the  bloody  business  which  informs 
Thus  to  mine  eyes. 

This  abnormal  state,  which  sees  things  having  no 
existence  outside  the  "  mind's  eye,"  is  no  respecter 
of  persons;  the  savage  and  the  civilized  are  alike 
its  victims.  It  may  be  organic  or  functional. 
Organic,  when  disease  is  present;  functional,  through 
excessive  fatigue,  lack  of  food  or  sleep,  or  derange- 
ment of  the  digestive  system,  causing  the  patient, 
as  Hood  says,  "  to  think  he's  pious  when  he's  only 
bilious."  Under  such  conditions,  hallucinations  of 
all  sorts  possess  the  mind;  hallucinations  from  which 
the  true  peptic,  who,  as  Carlyle  says,  "  has  no  sys- 
tem," is  delivered.  Only  the  mentally  anaemic,  the 
emotionally  overwrought,  the  unbalanced,  and  the 
epileptic,  are  the  victims,  whether  of  the  lofty  illu- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


155 


sions  of  august  visions  such  as  carried  Saint  Paul, 
Saint  Theresa,  and  Joan  of  Arc,  into  the  presence 
of  the  hoHest;  or  hallucination  of  drowned  cat,  thin 
and  "  dripping  with  water,"  born  of  the  disordered 
nerves  of  Mrs.  Gordon  Jones.  To  quote  from  Dr. 
Gower's  Bowman  Lecture  (Nature,  4th  July,  1895) 
on  Subjective  Visual  Sensations,  such  as  accom- 
pany fits,  when,  e.  g.,  sensations  of  sight  occur  with- 
out the  retina  being  stimulated: 

The  spectra  perceived  before  epileptic  fits  vary  widely. 
They  may  be  stars  or  sparks,  spherical  luminous  bodies,  or 
mere  flashes  of  light,  white  or  coloured,  still  or  in  movement. 
Often  they  are  more  elaborate,  distinct  visions  of  faces,  per- 
sons, objects,  places.  They  may  be  combined  with  sensations 
from  the  other  special  senses,  as  with  hearing  and  smell.  In 
one  case  a  warning,  constant  for  years,  began  with  thumping 
in  the  chest  ascending  to  the  head,  where  it  became  a  beating 
sound.  Then  two  lights  appeared,  advancing  nearer  with  a 
pulsating  motion.  Suddenly  these  disappeared  and  were  re- 
placed by  the  figure  of  an  old  woman  in  a  red  cloak,  always 
the  same,  who  offered  the  patient  something  that  had  the 
smell  of  Tonquin  beans,  and  then  he  lost  consciousness.  Such 
warnings  may  be  called  psychovisual  sensations.  The  psy- 
chical element  may  be  very  strong,  as  in  one  woman  whose  fits 
were  preceded  by  a  sudden  distinct  vision  of  London  in  ruins, 
the  river  Thames  emptied  to  receive  the  rubbish,  and  she  the 
only  survivor  of  the  inhabitants. 

Had  a  man  of  lesser  renown  and  mental  calibre 
than  Mr.  Wallace  thrown  the  weight  of  his  testimony 
into  the  scales  in  favour  of  spiritualism,  there  would 
have  been  neither  necessity  nor  excuse  for  this  di- 
gression. But  both  these  pleas  prevail  when  we 
find    the    co-formulator    of   the    Darwinian    theory 


156 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


among  mediums  and  their  dupes.  The  respectful 
attention  which  his  words  command:  the  tremendous 
claims  which  he  makes  on  behalf  of  the  phenomena 
at  seances  as  proving  the  existence  of  soul  apart 
from  body  after  death,  and  as  revealing  the  con- 
ditions under  which  it  lives,  have  made  incumbent 
the  foregoing  attempt  to  indicate  what  other  ex- 
planation is  given  of  those  phenomena,  showing 
how  these  fall  in  with  all  we  know  of  man's  tend- 
encies to  imperfect  observation  and  self-deception, 
and  with  all  that  history  tells  of  the  persistence  of 
animistic  ideas. 

A  salutary  lesson  on  the  use  and  misuse  of  the 
imagination  is  thus  taught.  That  which,  under 
wholesome  restraint,  is  the  initiative  and  incentive 
of  inquiry,  of  enterprise,  and  of  noble  ideas;  un- 
restricted, leads  the  dreamer  and  the  enthusiast  into 
ingulfing  quicksands  of  illusions  and  delusions. 
Hence  the  necessity  of  curbing  a  faculty  so  that  in 
unison  with  reason,  it  works  toward  definite  ends 
within  the  domain,  marking  man's  limits  of  service. 
As  Dr.  Maudsley  reminds  us  in  his  sane  and  sober 
book  on  Natural  Causes  and  Supernatural  Seeming, 
"  not  by  standing  out  of  Nature  in  the  ecstasy  of  a 
rapt  and  over-strained  idealism  of  any  sort,  but  by 
large  and  close  and  faithful  converse  with  Nature 
and  human  nature  in  all  their  moods,  aspects,  and 
relations,  is  the  solid  basis  of  fruitful  ideas  and  the 
soundest  mental  development  laid.  The  endeavour 
to  stimulate  and  strain  any  mental  function  to  an 


MODERN  EVOLUTION,  1 57 

activity  beyond  the  reach  and  need  of  a  physical 
correlate  in  external  nature,  and  to  give  it  an  inde- 
pendent value,  is  certainly  an  endeavour  to  go  direct- 
ly contrary  to  the  sober  and  salutary  method  by 
which  solid  human  development  has  taken  place  in 
the  past,  and  is  taking  place  in  the  present." 

The  story  of  Darwin's  work  must  now  be  re- 
sumed. Shortly  after  the  Linnsean  meeting,  he  pre- 
pared a  series  of  chapters  which,  always  regarded 
by  him  as  an  "  Abstract,"  ultimately  took  book  form, 
and  was  pubHshed,  under  the  title  of  the  Origin  of 
Species,  on  the  24th  of  November,  1859. 

The  story  of  the  reception  of  the  work  is  admir- 
ably told  by  Huxley  in  the  chapter  which  he  con- 
tributed to  Darwin's  Life  and  Letters,  and  it  may  be 
commended  as  useful  reading  to  a  generation  which, 
drinking-in  Darwinism  from  its  birth,  will  not  readily 
understand  how  such  storm  and  outcry  as  rent  the 
air,  both  in  scientific  as  well  as  clerical  quarters, 
could  have  been  raised.  "  In  fact,"  says  Huxley, 
"  the  contrast  between  the  present  condition  of  public 
opinion  upon  the  Darwinian  question;  between  the 
estimation  in  which  Darwin's  views  are  now  held  in 
the  scientific  world;  between  the  acquiescence,  or,  at 
least,  quiescence,  of  the  theologian  of  the  self-respect- 
ing order  at  the  present  day,  and  the  outburst  of 
antagonism  on  all  sides  in  1858-59,  when  the  new 
theory  respecting  the  origin  of  species  first  became 
known  to  the  older  generation  to  which  I  belong,  is 


1^8  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

SO  startling  that,  except  for  documentary  evidence,  I 
should  be  sometimes  inclined  to  think  my  memories 
dreams."  The  like  reflection  arises  when  we  con- 
sider the  indifference  with  which  books  of  the  most 
daring  and  revolutionary  character,  both  in  theology 
and  morals,  are  treated  nowadays,  in  contrast  to  the 
uproar  which  greeted  such  a  bnttum  fulmen  as  Essays 
and  Reviews.  As  for  Colenso's  Pentateuch,  and 
books  of  its  type,  orthodoxy  has  long  taken  them  to 
its  bosom. 

So  far  as  the  larger  number  of  naturalists,  and  of 
the  intelligent  public  who  followed  their  lead,  were 
concerned,  there  was  an  absolutely  open  mind  on 
the  question  of  the  mutation  of  species.  There  had 
been,  as  the  foregoing  sections  of  this  book  have 
shown,  a  long  time  of  preparation  and  speculation. 
We  certainly  find  the  keynote  of  Evolution  in 
Heraclitus,  and  more  than  two  thousand  years  after 
his  time  Herbert  Spencer,  above  all  men,  had  re- 
moved it  from  the  empirical  stage,  and  placed  it  on 
a  base  broad  as  the  facts  which  supported  it.  But 
it  needed  the  leaven  of  the  human  and  personal 
to  stir  it  into  life,  and  touch  man  in  his  various 
interests;  and  not  all  that  Mr.  Spencer  had  done  in 
application  of  the  theory  of  development  to  social 
questions  and  institutions  could  avail  much  till  Dar- 
win's theory  gave  it  practical  shape.  Dissertations 
on  the  passage  of  the  "  homogeneous  to  the  hetero- 
geneous "  ;  explanations  of  the  theory  of  the  evo- 
lution of  complex  sidereal  systems  out  of  diffused 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


159 


vapours  of  seemingly  simple  texture,  interested 
people  only  in  a  vague  and  wondering  fashion. 
But  when  Darwin  illustrated  the  theory  of  the  modi- 
fication of  life-forms  by  familiar  examples  gathered 
from  his  own  experiments  and  observations,  and  from 
intercourse  with  breeders  of  pigeons,  horses,  and 
dogs,  this  went  to  men's  "  business  and  bosoms," 
and  if  the  vulgar  interpreted  Darwinism,  as  some, 
who  should  know  better,  interpret  it  even  now,  as 
explaining  man's  descent  from  a  monkey,  or  how  a 
bear  became  a  whale  by  taking  to  swimming,  the 
thoughtful  accepted  it  as  a  master-key  unlocking  not 
the  mystery  of  origins  or  of  causes  of  variations, 
but  the  mystery  of  the  ceaselessly-acting  agent 
which,  operating  on  favourable  variations,  has 
brought  about  myriads  of  species  from  simple  forms. 
As  Huxley  reminds  us  in  the  passage  quoted 
above,  the  attitude  of  the  clergy  toward  the  theory 
of  Evolution  has  undergone  an  astounding  change. 
Dr.  Whewell  remarked  that  every  great  discovery  in 
science  has  had  to  pass  through  three  stages.  First, 
people  said,  "  It  is  absurd  "  ;  then  they  said,  "  It  is 
contrary  to  the  Bible "  ;  finally,  they  said,  "  We 
always  knew  that  it  was  so."  Thus  it  has  been  with 
Evolution.  It  is  calmly  discussed;  even  claimed  as 
a  "  defender  of  the  faith,"  at  Church  Congresses  now- 
adays. It  was  not  so  in  the  sixties.  Here  and  there 
a  single  voice  was  raised  in  qualified  sympathy — 
Charles  Kingsley  showed  more  than  this — but  both 
in  the  Old  and  the  New  World  the  "  drum  ecclesias- 


l6o  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

tic  "  was  beaten.  Cardinal  Manning  declared  Dar- 
winism to  be  a  ''  brutal  philosophy,  to  wit,  there  is 
no  God  and  the  ape  is  our  Adam."  Protestant  and 
Catholic  agreed  in  condemning  it  as  "  an  attempt  to 
dethrone  God  "  ;  as  ''  a  huge  imposture,"  as  "  tend- 
ing to  produce  disbelief  of  the  Bible,"  and  "  to  do 
away  with  all  idea  of  God,"  as  "  turning  the  Creator 
out  of  doors."  Such  are  fair  samples  to  be  culled 
from  the  anthology  of  invective  which  was  the  staple 
content  of  nearly  every  ''  criticism."  Occasionally 
some  parody  of  reasoning  appears  when  the  "  argu- 
ment "  is  advanced  that  there  is  "  a  simpler  explana- 
tion of  the  presence  of  these  strange  forms  among 
the  works  of  God  in  the  fall  of  Adam,"  but  even  this 
pseudo-concession  to  logic  is  rare;  and  one  divine 
had  no  hesitation  in  predicting  the  fate  of  Darwin 
and  his  followers  in  the  world  to  come.  "  If,"  said  a 
Dr.  Duffield  in  the  Princeton  Review,  "  the  de- 
velopment theory  of  the  origin  of  man  shall,  in  a 
little  while,  take  the  place — as  doubtless  it  will — with 
other  exploded  scientific  speculations,  then  they  who 
accept  it  with  its  proper  logical  consequences  will, 
in  the  life  to  come,  have  their  portion  with  those  who 
in  this  life  *  know  not  God  and  obey  not  the  Gospel 
of  His  Son.' "  But  the  most  notable  attack  came 
from  Samuel  Wilberforce,  then  Bishop  of  Oxford,  in 
the  Quarterly  Review  of  July,  i860.  "  It  is,"  said 
Huxley,  in  his  review  of  Haeckel's  Evolution  of  Man, 
"  a  production  which  should  be  bound  in  good  stout 
calf,  or  better,  asses'  skin,  by  the  curious  book-col- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  l6l 

lector,  together  with  Brougham's  attack  on  the  un- 
dulatory  theory  of  light  when  it  was  first  propounded 
by  Young."  The  bishop  declared  "  the  principle  of 
natural  selection  to  be  absolutely  incompatible  with 
the  word  of  God "  and  as  *'  contradicting  the  re- 
vealed relations  of  creation  to  its  Creator."  If  by 
"  revealed  relations  "  and  the  "  word  of  God  "  the 
Bible  is  intended,  the  evolutionist  is  in  agreement 
with  the  bishop.  But,  at  this  time  of  day,  it  seems 
scarcely  worth  while  to  shake  the  dust  off  articles 
which  have  gone  the  way  of  all  purely  controversial 
matter,  and  justification  for  reference  to  them  lies 
only  in  the  fact  that  the  contest  between  the  biolo- 
gists and  the  bishops  is  not  yet  ended. 

In  contrast  to  all  this,  and  in  evidence  of  the 
compromise  by  which  theology  is  vainly  striving  to 
justify  itself,  are  these  vague  sentences  from  Arch- 
deacon Wilson's  address  at  the  Church  Congress  at 
Shrewsbury  in  the  autumn  of  1896:  "  It  is  scarcely 
too  much  to  say  that  the  Theistic  Evolutionist  cannot 
be  otherwise  than  a  practical  Trinitarian,  and  cannot 
find  a  difficulty  in  the  Incarnation  or  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Spirit."  "  Christian  doctrine,  apart  from 
the  statement  of  historical  facts,  is  the  attempt  to 
create  out  of  Christ's  teachirg,  a  philosophy  of  life 
which  shall  satisfy  these  needs  (i.  e.,  the  needs  of 
humanity),  and  it  will  therefore  remain  the  same  in 
substance.  But  the  form  in  which  that  doctrine  will 
be  presented  must  change  with  man's  intellectual  en- 
vironment.   The  bearing  of  Evolution  on  Christian 


1 62  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

doctrine  is,  therefore,  in  a  word,  to  modify,  not  the 
doctrine,  but  the  form  in  which  it  is  expressed." 

Postponing  the  story  of  the  famous  debate  be- 
tween Wilberforce  and  Huxley,  the  reception  ac- 
corded to  the  Origin  of  Species  by  Darwin's  scien- 
tific contemporaries  may  be  noted.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer's position,  as  will  be  shown  later  on,  was  already 
distinctive:  he  was  a  Darwinian  before  Darwin. 
Hooker,  Huxley, — who  said  that  he  was  prepared  to 
go  to  the  stake,  if  needs  be,  in  support  of  some  parts 
of  the  book, — Bates,  and  Lubbock  were  immediate 
converts;  so  were  Asa  Gray  and  Lyell,  but  with 
reservations,  for  Lyell,  whose  creed  was  Unitarian, 
never  wholly  accepted  the  inclusion  of  man,  "  body 
soul,  and  spirit,"  as  the  outcome  of  natural  selection. 
Henslow  and  Pictet  went  one  mile,  but  refused  to  go 
twain;  Agassiz,  Murray,  and  Harvey  would  have 
none  of  the  new  heresy;  neither  would  Adam  Sedg- 
wick, who  wrote  a  long  protest  to  Darwin,  couched 
in  loving  terms,  and  ending  with  the  hope  that  ''  we 
shall  meet  in  heaven."  The  attitude  of  Owen,  if  ap- 
parently neutral  or  tentative  in  open  conversation, 
was,  as  an  anonymous  critic,  deadly  hostile.  Al- 
though it  is  not  included  in  the  list  of  his  writings 
given  in  the  Life  by  his  grandson,  he  is  known  to 
have  been  the  author  of  the  critique  on  the  Origin  of 
Species  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  of  April,  i860. 

At  the  outset  of  the  article-  he  speaks  of  Darwin's 
"  seduction  "  of  "  several,  perhaps  the  majority  of  our 
younger  naturalists  "  by  the  homoeopathic  form  of 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  163 

the  transmutation  of  species  presented  to  them  under 
the  phrase  of  natural  selection.  ..."  Owen  has  long 
stated  his  belief  that  some  pre-ordained  law  or 
secondary  cause  is  operative  in  bringing  about  the 
change  ...  we  therefore  regard  the  painstaking 
and  minute  comparison  by  Cuvier  of  the  osteological 
and  every  other  character  that  could  be  tested  in  the 
mummified  ibis,  cat,  or  crocodile  with  those  of  species 
living  in  his  time;  and  the  equally  philosophical 
investigation  of  the  polyps  operating  at  an  interval 
of  thirty  thousand  years  in  the  building-up  of  coral 
reefs  by  the  profound  palaeontologist  of  Neuchatel 
(Agassiz  is  here  referred  to),  as  of  far  truer  value  in 
reference  to  the  inductive  determination  of  the  ques- 
tion of  the  origin  of  species  than  the  speculations  of 
Demailler,  Bufifon,  Lamarck,  '  Vestiges,'  Baden 
Powell,  or  Darwin  "  (p.  532). 

Entangled  in  the  meshes  of  this  theory  of  a  ''  pre- 
ordained law,"  which  seems  to  bear  some  relation  to 
Aristotle's  "  perfecting  principle,"  and  is  in  close 
alliance  with  the  teaching  of  the  great  Cuvier,  at 
whose  feet  Owen  had  sat,  he  remained  to  the  end  of 
his  life  a  type  of  arrested  development.  While  the 
Church  cited  him  as  an  authority  against  the  Dar- 
winian theory,  especially  in  its  application  to  man's 
descent,  there  remained  in  the  memory  of  his  brother 
savants  his  lack  of  candour  in  never  withdrawing  the 
statement  made  by  him,  and  demonstrated  by  Hux- 
ley as  untrue,  that  the  ''  hippocampus  minor  "  in  the 
human  brain  is  absent  from  the  brain  of  the  ape. 


164  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

As  for  the  reception  of  the  book  abroad,  the 
French  savants  were  somewhat  coy,  but  the  Germans, 
with  Haeckel  at  their  head,  were  enthusiastic.  Dar- 
win had,  hke  all  prophets,  more  honour  in  other 
countries  than  in  his  own.  Evolution  being  rechris- 
tened  Darwinismus.  Translation  after  translation 
of  the  Origin  followed  apace,  and  the  personal  in- 
terest that  gathered  round  the  central  idea  led  to 
the  perusal  of  the  book  by  people  who  had  never 
before  opened  a  scientific  treatise.  Punch  seized  on 
it  as  subject  of  caricature;  and  writers  of  light  verse 
found  welcome  material  for  "  chaff  "  which  the  winds 
of  oblivion  have  blown  away,  a  stanza  here  and  there 
surviving,  as  in  Mr.  Courthope's  Aristophanic  Hues: 

Eggs  were  laid  as  before,  but  each  time  more  and  more  varieties 

struggled  and  bred, 
Till  one  end  of  the  scale  dropped  its  ancestor's  tail,  and  the  other 

got  rid  of  his  head. 
From  the  bill,  in  brief  words,  were  developed  the  Birds,  unless  our 

tame  pigeons  and  ducks  lie  ; 
From  the  tail  and  hind  legs,  in  the  second-laid  eggs,  the  apes, — 

and  Professor  Huxley  ! 

Heeding  neither  squib,  satire,  nor  sermon,  Dar- 
win, in  the  quiet  of  his  Kentish  home,  went  on  re- 
arranging old  materials,  collecting  new  materials, 
and  verifying  both,  the  outcome  of  this  being  his 
works  on  the  Fertilization  of  Orchids  and  the  Varia- 
tion of  Plants  and  Animals  under  Domestication, 
published  in  1862  and  1867  respectively.  Between 
these  dates  Huxley's  Man's  Place  in  Nature — logical 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  165 

supplement  to  the  Origin  of  Species — appeared.  But 
of  this  more  anon. 

Meanwhile,  as  already  named,  Mr.  Patrick  Mat- 
thew had  in  the  Gardener's  Chronicle  of  7th  April, 
i860,  drawn  attention  to  an  appendix  to  his  book  on 
Naval  Timber  and  Arboriculture  published  in  1831, 
in  which  he  anticipated  Darwin  and  Wallace's  theory 
as  follows: 

"  The  self-regulating  adaptive  disposition  of 
organised  life  may,  in  part,  be  traced  to  the  extreme 
fecundity  of  Nature,  who,  as  before  stated,  has  in  all 
the  varieties  cf  her  offspring  a  prolific  power  much 
beyond  (in  many  cases  a  thousandfold)  what  is  neces- 
sary to  fill  up  the  vacancies  caused  by  senile  decay. 
As  the  field  of  existence  is  limited  and  pre-occupied, 
it  is  only  the  hardier,  more  robust,  better-suited-to- 
circumstance  individuals,  who  are  able  to  struggle 
forward  to  maturity,  these  inhabiting  only  the  situ- 
ations to  which  they  have  superior  adaptation  and 
greater  power  of  occupancy  than  any  other  kind; 
the  weaker  and  less  circumstance-suited  being  pre- 
maturely destroyed.  This  principle  is  in  constant 
action;  it  regulates  the  colour,  the  figure,  the  ca- 
pacities, and  instincts;  those  individuals  in  each 
species  whose  colour  and  covering  are  best  suited 
to  concealment  or  protection  from  enemies,  or  de- 
fence from  inclemencies  or  vicissitudes  of  climate, 
whose  figure  is  best  accommodated  to  health, 
strength,  defence,  and  support;  whose  capacities  and 
instincts  can  best  regulate  the  physical  energies  to 


1 66  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

self-advantage  according  to  circumstances — in  such 
immense  waste  of  primary  and  youthful  life  those 
only  come  to  maturity  from  the  strict  ordeal  by 
which  Nature  tests  their  adaptation  to  her  standard 
of  perfection  and  fitness  to  continue  their  kind  by 
reproduction  "  (pp.  384,  385). 

While  speaking  of  difficulty  in  understanding 
some  passages  in  Mr.  Matthew's  appendix,  Darwin 
says  that  "  the  full  force  of  the  principle  of  natural 
selection  "  is  there,  and,  in  referring  to  it  in  a  letter 
to  Lyell,  he  adds  that  "  one  may  be  excused  in  not 
having  discovered  the  fact  in  a  work  on  Naval 
Timber!" 

Five  years  after  this,  another  pre-Darwinian  was 
unearthed,  and,  like  Patrick  Matthew,  in  unsuspected 
company.  Dr.  W.  C.  Wells  read  a  paper  before  the 
Royal  Society  in  181 3  on  a  White  Female  Part  of 
whose  Skin  resembles  that  of  a  Negro,  but  this  was 
not  published  till  1818,  when  it  formed  part  of  a 
volume  including  the  author's  famous  Two  Essays 
upon  Dew  and  Single  Vision.  In  his  Historical 
Sketch  Darwin  says  that  Wells  "  distinctly  recog- 
nis'es  the  principle  of  natural  selection,  and  this  is 
the  first  recognition  which  has  been  indicated;  but 
he  applies  it  only  to  the  races  of  man,  and  to  certain 
characters  alone.  ...  Of  the  accidental  varieties  of 
man,  which  would  occur  among  the  first  few  and 
scattered  inhabitants  of  the  middle  regions  of  Africa, 
some  one  would  be  better  fitted  than  the  others  to 
bear  the  diseases  of  the  country.     This  race  would 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  167 

consequently  multiply,  while  the  others  would  de- 
crease; not  only  from  their  inability  to  sustain  the 
attacks  of  disease,  but  from  their  incapacity  of  con- 
tending with  their  more  vigorous  neighbours." 

When  the  simplicity  of  the  long-hidden  solution 
is  brought  home,  we  can  understand  Huxley's  reflec- 
tion on  mastering  the  central  idea  of  the  Origin: 
"  How  extremely  stupid  not  to  have  thought  of 
that!  "  Twelve  years  elapsed  before  Darwin  followed 
up  his  world-shaking  book  with  the  Descent  of  Man. 
But  the  ground  had  been  prepared  for  its  reception 
in  the  decade  between  i860  and  1870.  Quoting 
Grant  Allen's  able  summary  of  the  advance  of  the 
theory  of  Evolution  in  his  Charles  Darwin:  ''One 
by  one  the  few  scientific  men  who  still  held  out 
were  overborne  by  the  weight  of  evidence.  Geology 
kept  supplying  fresh  instances  of  transitional  forms; 
the  progress  of  research  in  unexplored  countries  kept 
adding  to  our  knowledge  of  existing  intermediate 
species  and  varieties.  During  those  ten  years,  Her- 
bert Spencer  published  his  First  Principles,  his 
Biology,  and  the  remodelled  form  of  his  Psychology; 
Huxley  brought  out  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  the 
Lectures  on  Comparative  Anatomy,  and  the  Intro- 
duction to  the  Classification  of  Animals;  Wallace 
produced  his  Malay  Archipelago  and  his  Contribu- 
tions to  the  Theory  of  Natural  Selection  (Bates,  we 
may  here  add  to  Mr.  Allen's  list,  published  his  paper 
on  Mimicry  in  1861,  and  his  NaturaHst  on  the 
Amazons  in  1863);   and  Galton  wrote  his  admirable 


1 68  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

work  on  Hereditary  Genius,  of  which  his  own  family 
is  so  remarkable  an  instance.  Tyndall  and  Lewes 
had  long  since  signified  their  warm  adhesion.  At 
Oxford,  Rolleston  was  bringing  up  a  fresh  genera- 
tion of  young  biologists  in  the  new  faith;  at  Cam- 
bridge, Darwin's  old  university,  a  whole  school  of 
brilliant  and  accurate  physiologists  was  beginning  to 
make  itself  both  felt  and  heard.  In  the  domain  of 
anthropology,  Tylor  was  welcoming  the  assistance  of 
the  new  ideas,  while  Lubbock  was  engaged  on  his 
kindred  investigations  into  the  Origin  of  CiviHzation 
and  the  Primitive  Condition  of  Man.  All  these 
diverse  lines  of  thought  both  showed  the  widespread 
influence  of  Darwin's  first  great  work,  and  led  up 
to  the  preparation  of  his  second,  in  which  he  dealt 
with  the  history  and  development  of  the  human  race. 
And  what  was  thus  true  of  England  was  equally 
true  of  the  civilized  world,  regarded  as  a  whole: 
everywhere  the  great  evolutionary  movement  was 
well  in  progress,  everywhere  the  impulse  sent  forth 
from  the  quiet  Kentish  home  was  permeating  and 
quickening  the  entire  pulse  of  intelligent  humanity." 
The  Origin  of  Species,  as  we  have  seen,  was  in- 
tended as  a  rough  draft  or  preliminary  outline  of 
the  theory  of  natural  selection.  The  materials  which 
Darwin  had  collected  in  support  of  that  theory  being 
enormous,  the  several  books  which  followed  between 
1859  and  1 88 1,  the  year  before  his  death,  were  ex- 
pansions of  hints  and  parts  of  the  pioneer  book. 
The  last  to  appear  was  that  treating  of  The  Forma- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  1 69 

tion  of  Vegetable  Mould  through  the  Action  of 
Worms.  It  embodied  the  results  of  experiments 
which  had  been  carried  on  for  more  than  forty  years, 
since,  as  far  back  as  1837,  Darwin  read  a  paper  on 
the  subject  before  the  Geological  Society.  Reference 
to  it  recalls  a  story,  characteristic  of  Darwin's  innate 
modesty,  told  to  the  writer  by  the  present  John 
Murray.  Darwin  called  on  the  elder  Murray  (pre- 
sumably some  time  in  1880),  and  after  fumbling 
in  his  coat-tail  pocket,  drew  out  a  packet,  which 
he  handed  to  Murray  with  the  timidity  of  an  un- 
fledged author  submitting  his  first  manuscript.  "  I 
have  brought  you,"  he  said,  "  a  little  thing  of  mine 
on  the  action  of  worms  on  soil,"  and  then  paused  as 
if  in  doubt  whether  Murray  would  care  to  run  the 
risk  of  bringing  out  the  book!  One  story  leads  to 
another,  and  our  second  relates  to  the  burial  of 
Darwin  in  Westminster  Abbey.  Among  the  signa- 
tures of  members  of  Parliament,  requesting  Dean 
Bradley's  consent  to  Darwin's  interment  there,  was 
that  of  Mr.  Richard  B.  Martin,  partner  in  the  well- 
known  bank  of  that  name,  trading  under  the  sign  of 
the  "  Grasshopper."  In  his  history  of  this  old  institu- 
tion Mr.  John  B.  Martin  prints  the  following  letter, 
which  was  received  on  the  27th  of  April,  1882,  the 
day  after  Darwin's  funeral: — 

Sirs — We  have  this  day  drawn  a  check  for  the 

sum  of  £280,  which  closes  our  account  with  your 

firm.      Our  reasons   for  thus   closing  an   account 
12 


170 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


Opened  so  very  many  years  "ago  are  of  so  exceptional 
a  kind  that  we  are  quite  prepared  to  find  that  they 
are  deemed  wholly  inadequate  to  the  result.  .  .  . 
They  are  entirely  the  presence  of  Mr.  R.  B.  Martin 
at  Westminster  Abbey,  not  merely  as  giving  sanction 
to  the  same  as  an  individual,  but  appearing  as  one 
of  the  deputation  from  a  Society  which  has  especially 
become  the  indorser  and  sustainer  of  Mr.  Darwin's 
theories.  &  Co. 

The  accordance  of  a  resting-place  to  Darwin's 
remains  among  England's  illustrious  dead  in  that 
Valhalla,  was  an  irenicon  from  Theology  to  one 
whose  theories,  pushed  to  their  logical  issues,  have 
done  more  than  any  other  to  undermine  the  super- 
natural assumptions  on  which  it  is  built.  Not  that 
Darwin  was  a  man  of  aggressive  type.  If  he  speaks 
on  the  high  matters  round  which,  like  planet  tethered 
to  sun,  the  spirit  of  man  revolves  by  irresistible  at- 
traction, it  is  with  hesitating  voice  and  with  no  deep 
emotion.  A  man  of  placid  temper,  in  whom  the 
observing  faculties  were  stronger  than  the  reflective, 
he  was  content  to  collect  and  co-ordinate  facts, 
leaving  to  others  the  work  of  pointing  out  their 
significance,  and  adjusting  them,  as  best  they  could, 
to  this  or  that  theory.  It  would  be  unjust  to  say  of 
him  what  John  Morley  says  of  Voltaire,  that  "  he 
had  no  ear  for  the  finer  vibrations  of  the  spiritual 
voice,"  but  we  know  from  his  own  confessions,  what 
limitations  hemmed  in  his  emotional  nature.     The 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


171 


Life  and  Letters  tells  us  that  he  was  glad,  after  the 
more  serious  work  and  correspondence  of  the  day 
were  over,  to  listen  to  novels,  for  which  he  had  a 
great  love  so  long  as  they  ended  happily,  and  con- 
tained "  some  person  whom  one  can  thoroughly  love, 
if  a  pretty  woman,  so  much  the  better."  But 
strangely  enough,  he  lost  all  pleasure  in  music,  art, 
and  poetry  after  thirty.  When  at  school  he  enjoyed 
Thomson,  Byron,  and  Scott;  Shelley  gave  him  in- 
tense delight,  and  he  was  fond  of  Shakespeare, 
especially  the  historical  plays;  but  in  his  old  age 
he  found  him  "  so  intolerably  dull  that  it  nauseated 
me." 

This  curious  and  lamentable  loss  of  the  higher  aesthetic 
tastes  is  all  the  odder,  as  books  on  history,  biographies,  and 
travels  (independently  of  any  scientific  facts  which  they  may 
contain),  and  essays  on  all  sorts  of  subjects,  interest  me  as 
much  as  ever  they  did.  My  mind  seems  to  have  become  a 
kind  of  machine  for  grinding  general  laws  out  of  large  collec- 
tions of  facts,  but  why  this  should  have  caused  the  atrophy  of 
that  part  of  the  brain  alone  on  which  the  higher  tastes  depend 
I  cannot  conceive.  A  man  with  a  mind  more  highly  organised 
or  better  constituted  than  mine  would  not,  I  suppose,  have 
thus  suffered ;  and,  if  I  had  to  live  my  life  again,  I  would  have 
made  a  rule  to  read  some  poetry  and  listen  to  some  music  at 
least  once  every  week,  for  perhaps  the  parts  of  my  brain  now 
atrophied  would  thus  have  been  kept  active  through  use.  The 
loss  of  these  tastes  is  a  loss  of  happiness,  and  may  possibly  be 
injurious  to  the  intellect,  and  more  probably  to  the  moral  char- 
acter, by  enfeebling  the  emotional  part  of  our  nature. 

It  is  often  said  that  a  man's  religion  concerns 
himself  only.     So  far  as  the  value  of  the  majority 


172 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


of  people's  opinions  on  such  high  matters  goes,  this 
is  true;  but  it  is  a  shallow  saying  when  applied  to 
men  whose  words  carry  weight,  or  whose  discoveries 
cause  us  to  ask  what  is  their  bearing  on  the  larger 
questions  of  human  relations  and  destinies  to  which 
past  ages  have  given  answers  that  no  longer  satisfy 
us,  or  that  are  not  compatible  with  the  facts  dis- 
covered. Whatever  silence  Darwin  maintained  in 
his  books  as  to  his  religious  opinions,  intelHgent 
readers  would  see  that  unaggressive  as  was  the  mode 
of  presentments  of  his  theory,  it  undermined  current 
beHefs  in  special  providence,  with  its  special  creations 
and  contrivances,  and  therefore  in  the  intermittent 
interference  of  a  deity;  thus  excluding  that  super- 
natural action  of  which  miracles  are  the  decaying 
stock  evidence. 

Nor  could  they  fail  to  ask  whether  the  theory  of 
natural  selection  by  "  descent  with  modification  "  was 
to  apply  to  the  human  species.  And  when  Darwin, 
already  anticipated  in  this  application  by  his  more 
daring  disciples.  Professors  Huxley  and  Haeckel, 
published  his  Descent  of  Man,  with  its  outspoken 
chapter  on  the  origin  of  conscience  and  the  develop- 
ment of  belief  in  spiritual  beings,  a  belief  subject  to 
periodical  revision  as  knowledge  increased,  it  was 
obvious  that  the  bottom  was  knocked  out  of  all 
traditional  dogmas  of  man's  fall  and  redemption,  of 
human  sin  and  divine  forgiveness.  Therefore,  what 
Darwin  himself  believed  was  a  matter  of  moment. 
His  answers  to  inquiries  which  were  made  public 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


173 


during  his  lifetime  told  us  that  while  the  varying 
circumstances  and  modes  of  life  caused  his  judg- 
ment to  often  fluctuate,  and  that  while  he  had  never 
been  an  atheist  in  the  sense  of  denying  the  existence 
of  a  God,  "  I  think,"  he  says,  "  that  generally  (and 
more  and  more  as  I  grow  older)  but  not  always,  an 
agnostic  would  be  the  most  correct  description  of 
my  state  of  mind."  The  chapter  on  Religion, 
although  a  part  of  the  autobiography,  is  printed 
separately  in  the  Life  and  Letters.  As  the  following 
quotation  shows,  it  is  interesting  as  detailing  a  few 
of  the  steps  by  which  Darwin  reached,  that  suspen- 
sive stage. 

Whilst  on  board  the  Beagle  I  was  quite  orthodox,  and  I 
remember  being  heartily  laughed  at  by  several  of  the  officers 
(though  themselves  orthodox)  for  quoting  the  Bible  as  an  un- 
answerable authority  on  some  point  of  morality.  I  suppose  it 
was  the  novelty  of  the  argument  that  amused  them.  But  I 
had  gradually  come  by  this  time — i.e.,  1836  to  1839 — to  see 
that  the  Old  Testament  was  no  more  to  be  trusted  than  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos.  The  question,  then,  continually 
rose  before  my  mind,  and  would  not  be  banished — is  it  credi- 
ble that  if  God  were  now  to  make  a  revelation  to  the  Hindoos 
he  would  permit  it  to  be  connected  with  the  belief  in  Vishnu, 
Siva,  etc.,  as  Christianity  is  connected  with  the  Old  Testament } 
This  appeared  to  me  utterly  incredible. 

By  further  reflecting  that  the  clearest  evidence  would  be 
requisite  to  make  any  sane  man  believe  in  the  miracles  by 
which  Christianity  is  supported — and  that  the  more  we  know 
of  the  fixed  laws  of  Nature  the  more  incredible  do  miracles  be- 
come— that  the  men  at  that  time  were  ignorant  and  credulous 
to  a  degree  almost  incomprehensible  by  us,  that  the  Gospels 
can  not  be  proved  to  have  been  written  simultaneously  with 


174 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


the  events,  that  they  differ  in  many  important  details,  far  too 
important,  as  it  seems  to  me,  to  be  admitted  as  the  usual  in- 
accuracies of  eye-witnesses  :  by  such  reflections  as  these,  which 
I  give  not  as  having  the  least  novelty  or  value,  but  as  they  in- 
fluenced me,  I  gradually  came  to  disbelieve  in  Christianity  as  a 
divine  revelation.  The  fact  that  many  false  religions  have  spread 
over  large  portions  of  the  earth  like  wildfire  had  some  weight 
with  me. 

But  I  was  very  unwilling  to  give  up  my  belief ;  I  feel  sure 
of  this,  for  I  can  well  remember  often  and  often  inventing  day- 
dreams of  old  letters  between  distinguished  Romans,  and 
manuscripts  being  discovered  at  Pompeii  or  elsewhere,  which 
confirmed  in  the  most  striking  manner  all  that  was  written  in 
the  Gospels.  But  I  found  it  more  and  more  difficult,  with  free 
scope  given  to  my  imagination,  to  invent  evidence  which  would 
suffice  to  convince  me.  Thus  disbelief  crept  over  me  at  a  very 
slow  rate,  but  was  at  last  complete.  The  rate  was  so  slow 
that  I  felt  no  distress. 

Although  I  did  not  think  much  about  the  existence  of  a 
personal  God  until  a  considerably  later  period  of  my  life,  I  will 
here  give  the  vague  conclusions  to  which  I  have  been  driven. 
The  old  argument  from  design  in  Nature,  as  given  by  Paley, 
which  formerly  seemed  to  me  so  conclusive,  fails,  now  that  the 
law  of  natural  selection  has  been  discovered.  We  can  no 
longer  argue  that,  for  instance,  the  beautiful  hinge  of  a  bivalve 
shell  must  have  been  made  by  an  intelligent  being,  like  the 
hinge  of  a  door  by  a  man.  There  seems  to  be  no  more  design 
in  the  variability  of  organic  beings,  and  in  the  action  of  natural 
selection,  than  in  the  course  which  the  wind  blows.  But  I 
have  discussed  this  subject  at  the  end  of  my  book  on  the 
Variation  of  Domesticated  Animals  and  Plants,  and  the  argu- 
ment there  given  has  never,  as  far  as  I  can  see,  been  an- 
swered. 

Without  doubt,  the  influence  of  the  conclusions 
deducible  from  the  theory  of  Evolution  are  fatal  to 
belief  in  the  supernatural.    When  we  say  the  super- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION, 


175 


natural,  we  mean  that  great  body  of  assumptions  out 
of  which  are  constructed  all  theologies,  the  essential 
element  in  these  being  the  intimate  relation  between 
spiritual  beings,  of  whom  certain  qualities  are  predi- 
cated, and  man.  These  beings  have  no  longer  any 
place  in  the  effective  belief  of  intelligent  and  unpre- 
judiced men,  because  they  are  found  to  have  no 
correspondence  with  the  ascertained  operations  of 
Nature. 

2.  Herbert  Spencer. 

Contact  with  many  "  sorts  and  conditions  of 
men  "  brings  home  the  need  of  ceaselessly  dinning 
into  their  ears  the  fact  that  Darwin's  theory  deals  only 
with  the  evolution  of  plants  and  animals  from  a  common 
ancestry.  It  is  not  concerned  with  the  origin  of  life 
itself,  nor  with  those  conditions  preceding  life  which 
are  covered  by  the  general  term,  Inorganic  Evolution. 
Therefore,  it  forms  but  a  very  small  part  of  the  gen- 
eral theory  of  the  origin  of  the  earth  and  other  bodies, 
"  as  the  sand  by  the  seashore  innumerable,"  that  fill 
the  infinite  spaces. 

We  have  seen  that  speculation  about  the  universe 
had  its  rise  in  Ionia.  After  centuries  of  discourage- 
ment, prohibition,  and,  sometimes,  actual  persecu- 
tion, it  was  revived,  to  advance,  without  further  seri- 
ous arrest,  some  three  hundred  years  ago.  A  survey 
of  the  history  of  philosophies  of  the  origin  of  the 
cosmos  from  the  time  of  the  renascence  of  inquiry, 
shows  that  the  great  Immanuel  Kant  has  not  had  his 


1^6  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

due.  As  remarked  already,  he  appears  to  have  been 
the  first  to  put  into  shape  what  is  known  as  the 
nebular  theory.  In  his  General  Natural  History  and 
Theory  of  the  Celestial  Bodies;  or  an  Attempt  to 
Account  for  the  Constitution  and  the  Mechanical 
Origin  of  the  Universe  upon  Newtonian  Principles, 
published  in  1775,  he  "  pictures  to  himself  the  uni- 
verse as  once  an  infinite  expansion  of  formless  and 
diffused  matter.  At  one  point  of  this  he  supposes 
a  single  centre  of  attraction  set  up,  and  shows  how 
this  must  result  in  the  development  of  a  prodigious 
central  body,  surrounded  by  systems  of  solar  and 
planetary  worlds  in  all  stages  of  development.  In 
vivid  language  he  depicts  the  great  world-maelstrom, 
widening  the  margins  of  its  prodigious  eddy  in  the 
slow  progress  of  milHons  of  ages,  gradually  reclaim- 
ing more  and  more  of  the  molecular  waste,  and 
converting  chaos  into  cosmos.  But  what  is  gained 
at  the  margin  is  lost  in  the  centre;  the  attractions 
of  the  central  systems  bring  their  constituents  to- 
gether, which  then,  by  the  heat  evolved,  are  con- 
verted once  more  into  molecular  chaos.  Thus  the 
worlds  that  are  lie  between  the  ruins  of  the  worlds 
that  have  been  and  the  chaotic  materials  of  the 
worlds  that  shall  be;  and  in  spite  of  all  waste  and 
destruction.  Cosmos  is  extending  his  borders  at  the 
expense  of  Chaos." 

Kant's  speculations  were  confirmed  by  the  cele- 
brated mathematician,  Laplace.  He  showed  that  the 
"  rings  "  rotate  in  the  same  direction  as  the  central 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


177 


body  from  which  they  were  cast  off;  sun,  planets, 
and  moons  (those  of  Uranus  excepted)  moving  in  a 
common  direction,  and  almost  in  the  same  plane. 
The  probability  that  these  harmonious  movements 
are  the  effects  of  like  causes  he  calculated  as  200,000 
billions  to  one. 

The  observations  of  the  famous  astronomer.  Sir 
William  Herschel,  which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of 
binary  or  double  stars,  of  star-clusters,  and  cloud-like 
nebulas  (as  that  term  implies)  were  further  confirma- 
tions of  Kant's  theory.  And  such  modifications  in 
this  as  have  been  made  by  subsequent  advance  in 
knowledge,  notably  by  the  doctrine  of  the  Conserva- 
tion of  Energy  (the  hypothesis  of  Kant  and  Laplace 
being  based  on  gravitation  alone),  affect  not  the 
general  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
from  seemingly  formless,  unstable,  and  highly-dif- 
fused matter.  The  assumption  of  primitive  unstable- 
ness  and  unlikeness  squares  with  the  unequal 
distribution  of  matter;  with  the  movements  of  its 
masses  in  different  directions,  and  at  different  rates; 
and  with  the  ceaseless  redistribution  of  matter  and 
motion.  For  all  changes  of  states  are  due  to  the 
rearrangement  of  the  atoms  of  which  matter  is  made 
up,  resulting  in  the  evolution  of  the  seeming  like  into 
the  actual  unlike;  of  the  simple  into  the  more  and 
more  complex,  till — speaking  of  the  only  planet  of 
whose  life-history  we  can  have  knowledge — with  the 
cooling  of  the  earth  to  a  temperature  permitting  of 
the  evolution  of  living  matter,  the  highest  complexity 


1^8  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

is  reached  in  the  infinitely  diverse  forms  of  plants 
and  animals.  Therefore,  as  our  knowledge  of  matter 
is  limited  to  the  changes  of  which  we  assume  it  to 
be  the  vehicle,  it  would  seem  that  science  reduces 
the  Universe  to  the  intelligible  concept  of  Motion. 

Since  the  great  discovery  by  KirchofT,  in  1859, 
of  the  meaning  of  the  dark  lines  that  cross  the 
refracted  sun-rays,  the  spectroscope  has  come  as 
powerful  evidence  in  support  of  the  nebular  theory, 
while  the  photographic  plate  is  a  scarcely  less  im- 
portant witness.  The  one  has  demonstrated  that 
many  nebulae,  once  thought  to  be  star-clusters,  are 
masses  of  glowing  hydrogen  and  nitrogen  gases; 
that,  to  quote  the  striking  communication  made  by 
the  highest  authority  on  the  subject.  Dr.  Huggins, 
in  his  Presidential  Address  to  the  British  Associa- 
tion, 1891,  "  in  the  part  of  the  heavens  within  our 
ken,  the  stars  still  in  the  early  and  middle  stages  of 
evolution  exceed  greatly  in  number  those  which 
appear  to  be  in  an  advanced  condition  of  condensa- 
tion." The  other,  recording  infallible  vibrations  on 
a  sensitive  plate,  and  securing  accurate  registration 
of  the  impressions,  reveals,  as  in  Dr.  Roberts's  grand 
photograph  of  the  nebula  in  Andromeda,  a  central 
mass  round  which  are  distinct  rings  of  luminous 
matter,  these  being  separated  from  the  main  body 
by  dark  rifts  or  spaces.  To  quote  Dr.  Huggins  once 
more,  "  We  seem  to  have  presented  to  us  some  stage 
of  cosmical  Evolution  on  a  gigantic  scale." 

The  great  fact  that  lies  at  the  back  of  all  these 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  1 79 

confirmations  of  the  nebular  theory  is  the  funda- 
mental identity  of  the  stuff  of  which  the  universe  is 
made;  a  fact  which  entered  into  the  prevision  of  the 
Ionian  cosmologists.  Dr.  Huggins  says  that  ''  if  the 
whole  earth  were  heated  to  the  temperature  of  the 
sun,  its  spectrum  would  resemble  very  closely  the 
solar  spectrum." 

In  referring  to  this,  there  may  be  carrying*  of 
"  owls  to  Athens,"  but  that  re-statements  may  some- 
times be  needful  has  illustration  in  Lord  Salisbury's 
Presidential  Address  to  the  British  Association,  1894, 
wherein  the  assumed  absence  of  oxygen  and  nitrogen 
in  the  sun's  spectrum  is  adduced  as  an  argument 
against  the  theory  of  the  common  origin  of  the 
bodies  of  the  solar  system.  Speaking  of  the  pre- 
dominant proportion  of  oxygen  in  the  solid  and 
liquid  substances  of  the  earth,  and  of  the  pre- 
dominance of  nitrogen  in  our  atmosphere,  his  lord- 
ship asked,  "  if  the  earth  be  a  detached  bit  whisked 
off  the  mass  of  the  sun,  as  cosmogonists  love  to  tell 
us,  how  comes  it  that,  in  leaving  the  sun,  we  cleaned 
him  out  so  completely  of  his  nitrogen  and  oxygen 
that  not  a  trace  of  these  gases  remains  behind  to 
be  discovered  even  by  the  searching  vision  of  the 
spectroscope?"  If  Lord  Salisbury  had  consulted 
Dr.  Huggins,  or  some  foreign  astronomer  of  equal 
rank,  as  Duner  or  Scheiner,  he  would  not  have  put 
a  question  exposing  his  ignorance,  and  unmasking 
his  prejudice.  These  authorities  would  have  told 
him  that  when  a  mixture  of  the  incandescent  vapours 


l8o  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

of  the  metals  and  metalloids  (or  non-metallic  ele- 
mentary substances,  to  which  class  both  oxygen  and 
nitrogen  belong),  or  their  compounds,  is  examined 
with  the  spectroscope,  the  spectra  of  the  metalloids 
always  yield  before  that  of  the  metals.  Hence  the 
absence  of  the  lines  of  oxygen  and  other  metalloids, 
carbon  and  siHcon  excepted,  among  the  vast  crowd 
of  lines  in  the  solar  spectrum.  Then,  too,  in  extreme 
states  of  rarefaction  of  the  sun's  absorbing  layer, 
the  absorption  of  the  oxygen  is  too  small  to  be  sen- 
sible to  us. 

"  While  the  genesis  of  the  Solar  System,  and  of 
countless  other  systems  like  it,  is  thus  rendered  com- 
prehensible, the  ultimate  mystery  continues  as  great 
as  ever.  The  problem  of  existence  is  not  solved: 
it  is  simply  removed  further  back.  The  Nebular 
Hypothesis  throws  no  light  on  the  origin  of  diffused 
matter;  and  diffused  matter  as  much  needs  account- 
ing for  as  concrete  matter.  The  genesis  of  an  atom 
is  not  easier  to  conceive  than  the  genesis  of  a  planet. 
Nay,  indeed,  so  far  from  making  the  universe  a  less 
mystery  than  before,  it  makes  it  a  greater  mystery. 
Creation  by  manufacture  is  a  much  lower  thing  than 
creation  by  evolution.  A  man  can  put  together  a 
machine;  but  he  cannot  make  a  machine  develop 
itself.  The  ingenious  artisan,  able  as  some  have 
been  so  far  to  imitate  vitality  as  to  produce  a  me- 
chanical pianoforte  player,  may  in  some  sort  con- 
ceive how,  by  greater  skill,  a  complete  man  might 
be  artificially  produced;  but  he  is  unable  to  conceive 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  l8i 

how  such  a  complex  organism  gradually  arises  out 
of  a  minute  structureless  germ.  That  our  harmo- 
nious universe  once  existed  potentially  as  formless 
diffuse  matter,  and  has  slowly  grown  into  its  present 
organized  state,  is  a  far  more  astonishing  fact  than 
would  have  been  its  formation  after  the  artificial 
method  vulgarly  supposed.  Those  who  hold  it 
legitimate  to  argue  from  phenomena  to  noumena, 
may  rightly  contend  that  the  Nebular  Hypothesis 
implies  a  First  Cause  as  much  transcending  '  the 
mechanical  God  of  Paley '  as  does  the  fetish  of  the 
savage." 

This  quotation  is  from  an  essay  on  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis,  which  appeared  in  the  Westminster 
Review  of  July,  1858,  and  which  must,  therefore, 
have  been  written  before  the  eventful  date  of  the 
reading  of  Darwin  and  Wallace's  memorable  paper 
before  the  Linnsean  Society.  The  author  of  that 
essay  is  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  and  the  foregoing 
extract  from  it  may  fitly  preface  a  brief  account  of 
his  life-work  in  co-ordinating  the  manifold  branches 
of  knowledge  into  a  synthetic  whole.  In  erecting  a 
complete  theory  of  Evolution  on  a  purely  scientific 
basis  "  his  profound  and  vigorous  writings,"  to  quote 
Huxley,  ''  embody  the  spirit  of  Descartes  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  own  day."  Laying  the  foundation 
of  his  massive  structure  in  early  manhood,  Mr. 
Spencer  has  had  the  rare  satisfaction  of  placing  the 
topmost  stone  on  the  building  which  his  brain  de- 
vised and  his  hand  upreared.     While  the  sheets  of 


1 82  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

this  little  book  are  being  passed  for  press,  there  ar- 
rives the  third  volume  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology, 
which  completes  Mr.  Spencer's  Synthetic  Philoso- 
phy. In  the  preface  to  this,  the  venerable  author 
says: 

"  On  looking  back  over  the  six-and-thirty  years 
which  I  have  passed  since  the  Synthetic  Philos- 
ophy was  commenced,  I  am  surprised  at  my 
audacity  in  undertaking  it,  and  still  more  surprised 
by  its  completion.  In  i860  my  small  resources  had 
been  nearly  all  frittered  away  in  writing  and  publish- 
ing books  which  did  not  repay  their  expenses;  and 
I  was  suffering  under  a  chronic  disorder,  caused  by 
overtax  of  brain  in  1855,  which,  wholly  disabling 
me  for  eighteen  months,  thereafter  limited  my  work 
to  three  hours  a  day,  and  usually  to  less.  How  in- 
sane my  project  must  have  seemed  to  onlookers, 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  before  the  first 
chapter  of  the  first  volume  was  finished,  one  of  my 
nervous  breakdowns  obliged  me  to  desist. 

''  But  imprudent  courses  do  not  always  fail. 
Sometimes  a  forlorn  hope  is  justified  by  the  event. 
Though,  along  with  other  deterrents,  many  relapses, 
now  lasting  for  weeks,  now  for  months,  and  once  for 
years,  often  made  me  despair  of  reaching  the  end, 
yet  at  length  the  end  is  reached.  Doubtless  in 
earlier  years  some  exultation  would  have  resulted; 
but  as  age  creeps  on  feelings  weaken,  and  now  my 
chief  pleasure  is  in  my  emancipation.  Still  there  is 
satisfaction   in   the   consciousness   that   losses,    dis- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


183 


couragements,  and  shattered  health  have  not  pre- 
vented me  from  fulfilling  the  purpose  of  my  life." 

These  words  recall  a  parallel  invited  by  Gibbon's 
record  of  his  feelings  on  the  completion  of  his  im- 
mortal work,  when  walking  under  the  acacias  of  his 
garden  at  Lausanne,  he  pondered  on  the  "  recovery 
of  his  freedom,  and  perhaps  the  establishment  of  his 
fame,"  but  with  a  "  sober  melancholy  "  at  the  thought 
that  "  he  had  taken  an  everlasting  leave  of  an  old 
and  agreeable  companion." 

Herbert  Spencer,  spiritual  descendant — longo 
intervallo — of  Heraclitus  and  Lucretius,  was  born  at 
Derby  on  the  27th  of  April,  1820.  His  father  was  a 
schoolmaster;  a  man  of  scientific  tastes,  and,  it  is 
interesting  to  note,  secretary  of  the  Derby  Philo- 
sophical Association  founded  by  Erasmus  Darwin. 
In  Mr.  Spencer's  book  on  Education  there  are  hints 
of  his  inheritance  of  the  father's  bent  as  an  observer 
and  lover  of  Nature  in  the  remark  that,  "  whoever 
has  not  in  youth  collected  plants  and  insects,  knows 
not  half  the  halo  of  interest  which  lanes  and  hedge- 
rows can  assume."  He  was  articled  in  his  seven- 
teenth year  to  a  railway  engineer,  and  followed  that 
profession  until  he  was  twenty-five.  During  this 
period  he  wrote  various  papers  for  the  Civil  En- 
gineers' and  Architects'  Journal,  and,  what  is  of 
importance  to  note,  a  series  of  letters  to  the  Non- 
conformist in  1842  on  The  Proper  Sphere  of 
Government  (republished  as  a  pamphlet  in  1844), 
in  which  "  the  only  point  of  community  with  the 


1 84  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

general  doctrine  of  Evolution  is  a  belief  in  the  modi- 
fiability  of  human  nature  through  adaptation  to  con- 
ditions, and  a  consequent  belief  in  human  pro- 
gression." After  giving  up  engineering,  Mr.  Spencer 
joined  the  staff  of  the  Economist,  and  while  thus 
employed,  published,  in  1850,  his  first  important 
book.  Social  Statics,  or  the  Conditions  essential  to 
Human  Happiness  specified,  and  the  first  of  them 
developed.  In  a  footnote  to  the  later  editions  of  this 
work  Mr.  Spencer  points  out  a  brace  of  para- 
graphs in  the  chapter  on  General  Considerations  in 
which  "  may  be  seen  the  first  step  toward  the  gen- 
eral doctrine  of  Evolution.  After  referring  to  the 
analogy  between  the  subdivision  of  labour,  which 
goes  on  in  human  society  as  it  advances;  and  the 
gradual  diminution  in  the  number  of  like  parts  and 
the  multiplication  of  unlike  parts  which  are  observ- 
able in  the  higher  animals ;  Mr.  Spencer  says : 

"  Now,  just  the  same  coalescence  of  like  parts  and 
separation  of  unlike  ones — ^just  the  same  increasing 
subdivision  of  function — takes  place  in  the  develop- 
ment of  society.  The  earHest  social  organisms  con- 
sist almost  wholly  of  repetitions  of  one  element. 
Every  man  is  a  warrior,  hunter,  fisherman,  builder, 
agriculturist,  toolmaker.  Each  portion  of  the  com- 
munity performs  the  same  duties  with  every  other 
portion;  much  as  each  slice  of  the  polyp's  body  is 
alike  stomach,  muscle,  skin,  and  lungs.  Even  the 
chiefs,  in  whom  a  tendency  towards  separateness  of 
function  first  appears,  still  retain  their  similarity  to 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


185 


the  rest  in  economic  respects.  The  next  stage  is 
distinguished  by  a  segregation  of  these  social  units 
into  a  few  distinct  classes — warriors,  priests,  and 
slaves.  A  further  advance  is  seen  in  the  sundering 
of  the  labourers  into  different  castes,  having  special 
occupations,  as  among  the  Hindoos.  And,  without 
further  illustration,  the  reader  will  at  once  perceive, 
that  from  these  inferior  types  of  society  up  to  our 
own  complicated  and  more  perfect  one,  the  progress 
has  ever  been  of  the  same  nature.  While  he  will 
also  perceive  that  this  coalescence  of  like  parts,  as 
seen  in  the  concentration  of  particular  manufactures 
in  particular  districts,  and  this  separation  of  agents 
having  separate  functions,  as  seen  in  the  more  and 
more  minute  division  of  labour,  are  still  going  on. 

"  Thus  do  we  find,  not  only  that  the  analogy 
between  a  society  and  a  living  creature  is  borne  out 
to  a  degree  quite  unsuspected  by  those  who  com- 
monly draw  it,  but  also  that  the  same  definition  of 
life  applies  to  both.  This  union  of  many  men  into 
one  community — this  increasing  mutual  dependence 
of  units  which  were  originally  independent — this 
formation  of  a  whole  consisting  of  unlike  parts — 
this  growth  of  an  organism,  of  which  one  portion 
cannot  be  injured  without  the  rest  feeling  it — may 
all  be  generalized  under  the  law  of  individuation. 
The  development  of  society,  as  well  as  the  develop- 
ment of  man  and  the  development  of  life  generally^ 
may  be  described  as  a  tendency  to  individuate — to 
become  a  thing.  And  rightly  interpreted,  the  mani- 
13 


1 36  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

fold  forms  of  progress  going  on  around  us  are  uni- 
formly significant  of  this  tendency." 

Homo  sum:  humani  nihil  a  me  alieniim  puto:  "  I 
am  a  man  and  nothing  human  is  foreign  to  me." 
This  oft-quoted  saying  of  the  old  farmer  in  the  Self- 
Tormentor  of  Terence  might  be  affixed  as  motto 
to  Herbert  Spencer's  writings  from  the  tractate  on 
the  Proper  Sphere  of  Government  to  the  concluding 
volume  of  the  Principles  of  Sociology.  For  thought 
of  human  interests  everywhere  pervades  them ;  social 
and  ethical  questions  are  kept  in  the  van  throughout. 
Philosophy  is  brbught  from  her  high  seat  to  mix 
in  the  sweet  amenities  of  home,  in  the  discipline  of 
camp,  in  the  rivalry  of  market;  and  linked  to  con- 
duct. Conduct  is  defined  as  "  acts  adjusted  to  ends," 
the  perfecting  of  the  adjustment  being  the  highest 
aim,  so  that  "  the  greatest  totality  of  Hfe  in  self,  in 
offspring,  and  in  fellow-men  "  is  secured,  the  limit 
of  evolution  of  conduct  not  being  reached,  "  until, 
beyond  avoidance  of  direct  and  indirect  injuries  to 
others,  there  are  spontaneous  efforts  to  further  the 
welfare  of  others."  Emerson  puts  this  ideal  into 
crisp  form  when  he  speaks  of  the  time  in  which  a 
man  shall  care  more  that  he  wrongs  not  his  neigh- 
bour than  that  his  neighbour  wrongs  him;  then  will 
his  "  market-cart  become  a  chariot  of  the  sun." 

That  humanity  is  the  pivot  round  which  Mr. 
Spencer's  philosophic  system  revolves  is  seen  in  the 
earliest  Essays,  and  notably  in  his  making  mental 
evolution  the  subject  of  the  first  instalment  of  his 


MODERN  EVOLUTION,  1 87 

Synthetic  Philosophy.  For,  in  the  Principles  of 
Psychology,  published  in  1855,  he  limits  feeling  or 
consciousness  to  animals  possessing  a  nervous  sys- 
tem, and  traces  its  beginnings  in  the  "  blurred, 
undetermined  feeling  answering  to  a  single  pulsation 
or  shock "  (as  for  example,  to  go  no  lower  down 
the  life-scale,  in  the  medusa  or  jelly-fish),  to  its 
highest  form  as  self-consciousness,  or  knowing  that 
we  know,  in  man.  This  dominant  element  in  Mr. 
Spencer's  philosophy  secures  it  a  life  and  permanence 
which,  had  it  been  restricted  to  explaining  the 
mechanics  of  the  inorganic  universe,  it  could  never 
have  possessed.  It  has  been  observed  how  the  Dar- 
winian theory  aroused  attention  in  all  quarters 
because  it  touched  human  interests  on  every  side. 
And,  although  less  obvious  to  the  multitude,  the 
Synthetic  Philosophy,  deaHng  with  all  cosmic  pro- 
cesses as  purely  mechanical  problems,  interprets 
"  the  phenomena  of  life  (excluding  the  question  of 
its  origin),  mind,  and  society,  in  terms  of  matter 
and  motion."  Anticipating  the  levelling  of  epithets 
against  such  apparent  materializing  of  mental  phe- 
nomena involved  in  that  method,  Spencer  remarks 
on  the  dismay  with  which  men,  who  have  not  risen 
above  the  vulgar  conception  which  unites  with  mat- 
ter the  contemptuous  epithets  "  gross  "  and  "  brute," 
regard  the  proposal  to  reduce  the  phenomena  of  Life, 
of  Mind,  and  of  Society,  to  a  level  which  they  think 
so  degraded.  "  Whoever  remembers  that  the  forms 
of  existence  which  the  uncultivated  speak  of  with  so 


1 88  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

much  scorn,  are  shown  by  the  man  of  science  to  be 
the  more  marvellous  in  their  attributes  the  more  they 
are  investigated,  and  are  also  proved  to  be  in  their 
ultimate  natures  absolutely  incomprehensible — as 
absolutely  incomprehensible  as  sensation,  or  the 
conscious  something  which  perceives  it — whoever 
clearly  recognises  this  truth,  will  see  that  the  course 
proposed  does  not  imply  a  degradation  of  the  so- 
called  higher,  but  an  elevation  of  the  so-called  lower. 
Perceiving,  as  he  will,  that  the  Materialist  and 
Spiritualist  controversy  is  a  mere  war  of  words, — in 
which  the  disputants  are  equally  absurd,  each  think- 
ing that  he  understands  that  which  it  is  impossible 
for  any  man  to  understand, — he  will  perceive  how 
utterly  groundless  is  the  fear  referred  to.  Being 
fully  convinced  that  no  matter  what  nomenclature  is 
used,  the  ultimate  mystery  must  remain  the  same, 
he  will  be  as  ready  to  formulate  all  phenomena  in 
terms  of  Matter,  Motion,  and  Force,  as  in  any  other 
terms;  and  will  rather  indeed  anticipate,  that  only 
in  a  doctrine  which  recognises  the  Unknown  Cause 
as  co-extensive  with  all  orders  of  phenomena,  can 
there  be  a  consistent  Religion,  or  a  consistent 
Philosophy." 

This  is  clear  enough;  yet  such  is  the  crass  density 
of  some  objectors  that  eighteen  years  after  the  above 
was  written,  Mr.  Spencer,  in  answering  criticisms 
on  First  Principles,  had  to  rebut  the  charge  that  he 
believed  matter  to  consist  of  "  space-occupying 
units,  having  shape  and  measurement." 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  189 

The  Principles  of  Psychology  was  both  preceded 
and  followed  by  a  series  of  essays  in  which  the 
process  of  change  from  the  "  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous,"  i.  e.,  from  the  seeming  like  to  the 
actual  unlike,  was  expounded.  Mr.  Spencer  tells 
us  that  in  1852  he  first  became  acquainted  with 
Von  Baer's  Law  of  Development,  or  the  changes 
undergone  in  each  living  thing,  from  the  general  to 
the  special,  during  its  advance  from  the  embryonic 
to  the  fully-formed  state.  That  law  confirmed  the 
prevision  indicated  in  the  passages  quoted  above 
from  Social  Statics,  and  impressed  him  as  one  of 
the  three  doctrines  which  are  indispensable  elements 
of  the  general  theory  of  Evolution.  The  other  two 
are  the  Correlation  of  the  Physical  Forces,  or  the 
transformation  of  different  modes  of  motion  into 
other  modes  of  motion,  as  of  heat  or  light  into 
electricity,  and  so  forth,  in  Proteus-like  fashion;  and 
the  Conservation  of  Energy,  or  the  indestructibility 
of  matter  and  motion,  whatever  changes  or  trans- 
formations these  may  undergo. 

In  permitting  the  quotation  of  the  useful  abstract 
of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy  which,  originally  drawn 
up  for  the  late  Professor  Youmans,  was  imbodied 
in  a  letter  to  the  Athenaeum  of  22d  of  July,  1882,  Mr. 
Spencer  was  good  enough  to  volunteer  the  following 
details  to  the  writer: — 

"  You  are  probably  aware  that  the  conception  set 
forth  in  that  abstract  was  reached  by  slow  steps  dur- 
ing many  years.    These  steps  occurred  as  follows : — ■ 


190 


PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 


1850.  Social  Statics:  especially  chapter  General 
Considerations.  (Higher  human  Evo- 
lution.) 

1852.  March.  Development  Hypothesis,  in  the 
Leader.  (Evolution  of  species,  vid. 
ante,  p.  iii.) 

1852.  April.  Theory  of  Population,  etc.,  in  West- 
minster Review.  (Higher  human  Evo- 
lution.) 

1854.  July.  The  Genesis  of  Science  in  British 
Quarterly  Review.  (Intellectual  Evo- 
lution.) 

1855..  July-  Principles  of  Psychology.  (Mental 
Evolution  in  general.) 

1857.  April.  Progress:  its  Law  and  Cause:  West- 
minster Review.    (Evolution  at  large.) 

1857.  April.  Ultimate  Laws  of  Physiology. 
National  Review.  (Another  factor  of 
Evolution  at  large.) 

^'  From  these  last  two  Essays  came  the  inception 
of  the  Synthetic  Philosophy.  The  first  programme 
of  it  was  drawn  up  in  January,  1858."  .  .  . 

When  seeing  Mr.  Spencer  on  the  subject  of  this 
letter,  he  took  the  further  trouble  to  point  out  certain 
passages  in  the  essays  originally  comprised  in  the 
one  volume  edition  of  1858  which  contain  germinal 
ideas  of  his  synthesis.  That  they  are  his  selection 
will  add  to  the  interest  and  value  of  their  quotation, 
revealing,  as  perchance  they  may,  a  fragment  of  the 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  jqi 

autobiography  which  it  is  an  open  secret  Mr.  Spencer 
has  written. 

"  That  Law,  Religion,  and  Manners  are  thus  re- 
lated— that  their  respective  kinds  of  operation  come 
under  one  generalisation — that  they  have  in  certain 
contrasted  characteristics  of  men  a  common  support 
and  a  common  danger — will,  however,  be  most 
clearly  seen  on  discovering  that  they  have  a  com- 
mon origin.  Little  as  from  present  appearances  we 
should  suppose  it,  we  shall  yet  find  that  at  first, 
the  control  of  religion,  the  control  of  laws,  and  the 
control  of  manners,  were  all  one  control.  However 
incredible  it  may  now  seem,  we  believe  it  to  be 
demonstrable  that  the  rules  of  etiquette,  the  pro- 
visions of  the  statute-book,  and  the  commands  of  the 
decalogue,  have  grown  from  the  same  root.  If  we 
go  far  back  enough  into  the  ages  of  primeval 
Fetishism,  it  becomes  manifest  that  originally  Deity, 
Chief,  and  Master  of  the  Cermonies  were  identical " 
(Essays,  vol.  i,  1883  edition;  Manners  and  Fashion, 

p-  65).  ^ 

"  Scientific  advance  is  as  much  from  the  special 
to  the  general  as  from  the  general  to  the  special. 
Quite  in  harmony  with  this  we  find  to  be  the  admis- 
sions that  the  sciences  are  as  branches  of  one  trunk, 
and  that  they  were  at  first  cultivated  simultaneously; 
and  this  becomes  the  more  marked  on  finding,  as  we 
have  done,  not  only  that  the  sciences  have  a  common 
root,  but  that  science  in  general  has  a  common  root 
with    language,    classification,    reasoning,  art;    that 


192 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


throughout  civilisation  these  have  advanced  together, 
acting  and  reacting  on  each  other  just  as  the  sepa- 
rate sciences  have  done;  and  that  thus  the  develop- 
ment of  intelhgence  in  all  its  divisions  and  subdi- 
visions has  conformed  to  this  same  law  to  which 
we  have  shown  the  sciences  conform "  (lb.  The 
Genesis  of  Science,  pp.  191,  192). 

(In  correspondence  with  this,  recognising  that 
the  same  method  has  to  be  adopted  in  all  inquiry, 
whether  we  deal  with  the  body  or  the  mind,  the  fol- 
lowing may  be  quoted  from  Hume's  Treatise  on 
Human  Nature. 

"  'Tis  evident  that  all  the  sciences  have  a  relation, 
greater  or  less,  to  human  nature;  and  that,  however 
wide  any  of  them  may  seem  to  run  from  it,  they 
still  return  back  by  one  passage  or  another.  Even 
Mathematics,  Natural  Philosophy,  and  Natural  Re- 
ligion are  in  some  measure  dependent  on  the  sci- 
ence of  Man,  since  they  lie  under  the  cognisance 
of  men,  and  are  judged  of  by  their  powers  and 
qualities.) 

''  The  analogy  between  individual  organisms  and 
the  social  organisms  is  one  that  has  in  all  ages  forced 
itself  on  the  attention  of  the  observant.  .  .  .  While  it 
is  becoming  clear  that  there  are  no  such  special 
parallelisms  between  the  constituent  parts  of  a  man 
and  those  of  a  nation,  as  have  been  thought  to  exist, 
it  is  also  becoming  clear  that  the  general  principles 
of  development  and  structure  displayed  in  all  organ- 
ised bodies  are  displayed  in  societies  also.    The  fun- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


193 


damental  characteristic  both  of  societies  and  of  hving 
creatures  is,  that  they  consist  of  mutually  dependent 
parts;  and  it  would  seem  that  this  involves  a  com- 
munity of  various  other  characteristics.  .  .  .  Mean- 
while, if  any  such  correspondence  exists,  it  is  clear 
that  Biology  and  Sociology  will  more  or  less  inter- 
pret each  other. 

"  One  of  the  positions  we  have  endeavoured  to 
establish  is,  that  in  animals  the  process  of  develop- 
ment is  carried  on,  not  by  differentiations  only,  but 
by  subordinate  integrations.  Now  in  the  social  or- 
ganism we  may  see  the  same  duality  of  process;  and 
further,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  integrations  are 
of  the  same  three  kinds.  Thus  we  have  integrations 
that  .arise  from  the  simple  growth  of  adjacent  parts 
that  perform  like  functions;  as,  for  instance,  the  co- 
alescence of  Manchester  with  its  calico-weaving 
suburbs.  We  have  other  integrations  that  arise 
when,  out  of  several  places  producing  a  particular 
commodity,  one  monopolises  more  and  more  of  the 
business,  and  leaves  the  rest  to  dwindle;  as  witness 
the  growth  of  the  Yorkshire  cloth  districts  at  the 
expense  of  those  in  the  west  of  England.  .  .  .  And 
we  have  yet  those  other  integrations  that  result  from 
the  actual  approximation  of  the  similarly-occupied 
parts,  whence  results  such  facts  as  the  concentration 
of  publishers  in  Paternoster  Row,  of  lawyers  in  the 
Temple  and  neighbourhood,  of  corn  merchants  about 
Mark  Lane,  of  civil  engineers  in  Great  George 
Street,  of  bankers  in  the  centre  of  the  city  "  (Essays, 


194 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


vol.  iii,  1878  edition;  Transcendental  Physiology, 
pp.  414-416). 

But,  divested  of  technicalities,  and  summarized 
in  words  to  be  *'  understanded  of  the  people,"  the 
following  quotation  from  the  Essay  on  Progress:  Its 
Law  and  Cause,  gives  the  gist  of  the  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy : 

"  We  believe  we  have  shown  beyond  question 
that  that  which  the  German  physiologists  (Von 
Baer,  Wolfif,  and  others)  have  found  to  be  the  law 
of  organic  development  (as  of  a  seed  into  a  tree, 
and  of  an  ^^^  into  an  animal),  is  the  law  of  all  de- 
velopment. The  advance  from  the  simple  to  the 
complex,  through  a  process  of  successive  differentia- 
tions (i.  e.,  the  appearance  of  differences  in  the  parts 
of  a  seemingly  like  substance),  is  seen  alike  in  the 
earliest  changes  of  the  Universe  to  which  we  can 
reason  our  way  back;  and  in  the  earlier  changes 
which  we  can  inductively  establish;  it  is  seen  in  the 
geologic  and  climatic  evolution  of  the  Earth,  and  of 
every  single  organism  on  its  surface;  it  is  seen  in 
the  evolution  of  Humanity,  whether  contemplated 
in  the  civilised  individual,  or  in  the  aggregation  of 
races;  it  is  seen  in  the  evolution  of  Society  in  re- 
spect alike  of  its  political,  its  religious,  and  its  eco- 
nomical organisation;  and  it  is  seen  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  all  those  endless  concrete  and  abstract  prod- 
ucts of  human  activity  which  constitute  the  environ- 
ment of  our  daily  life.  From  the  remotest  past 
which  Science  can  fathom,  up  to  the  novelties  of  yes- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION,  1Q5 

terday,  that  in  which  Progress  essentially  consists, 
is  the  transformation  of  the  homogeneous  into  the 
heterogeneous "  (Essays,  vol.  i,   1883,  p.  30). 

To  this  may  fitly  follow  the  "  succinct  statement 
of  the  cardinal  principles  developed  in  the  successive 
works,"  which  Mr.  Spencer,  as  named  above,  pre- 
pared for  Professor  Youmans. 

1.  Throughout  the  universe  in  general  and  in 
detail  there  is  an  unceasing  redistribution  of  matter 
and  motion. 

2.  This  redistribution  constitutes  evolution  when 
there  is  a  predominant  integration  of  matter  and 
dissipation  of  motion,  and  constitutes  dissolution 
when  there  is  a  predominant  absorption  of  motion 
and  disintegration  of  matter. 

3.  Evolution  is  simple  when  the  process  of  in- 
tegration, or  the  formation  of  a  coherent  aggregate, 
proceeds  uncomplicated  by  other  processes. 

4.  Evolution  is  compound,  when  along  with  this 
primary  change  from  an  incoherent  to  a  coherent 
state,  there  go  on  secondary  changes  due  to  differ- 
ences in  the  circumstances  of  the  different  parts  of 
the  aggregate. 

5.  These  secondary  changes  constitute  a  trans- 
formation of  the  homogeneous  into  the  hetero- 
geneous— a  transformation  which,  like  the  first,  is 
exhibited  in  the  universe  as  a  whole  and  in  all  (or 
nearly  all)  its  details;  in  the  aggregate  of  stars  and 
nebulae;  in  the  planetary  system;  in  the  earth  as  an 
inorganic  mass;  in  each  organism,  vegetal  or  ani- 


ig6  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

mal  (Von  Baer's  law  otherwise  expressed);  in  the 
aggregate  of  organisms  throughout  geologic  time; 
in  the  mind;  in  society;  in  all  products  of  social 
activity. 

6.  The  process  of  integration,  acting  locally  as 
well  as  generally,  combines  with  the  process  of  dif- 
ferentiation to  render  this  change  not  simply  from 
homogeneity  to  heterogeneity,  but  from  an  indefinite 
homogeneity  to  a  definite  heterogeneity;  and  this 
trait  of  increasing  definiteness,  which  accompanies 
the  trait  of  increasing  heterogeneity,  is,  like  it,  ex- 
hibited in  the  totality  of  things  and  in  all  its  divisions 
and  subdivisions  down  to  the  minutest. 

7.  Along  with  this  redistribution  of  the  matter 
composing  any  evolving  aggregate  there  goes  on  a 
redistribution  of  the  retained  motion  of  its  com- 
ponents in  relation  to  one  another;  this  also  becomes, 
step  by  step,  more  definitely  heterogeneous. 

8.  In  the  absence  of  a  homogeneity  that  is  in- 
finite and  absolute,  that  redistribution,  of  which  evo- 
lution is  one  phase,  is  inevitable.  The  causes  which 
necessitate  it  are  these — 

9.  The  instability  of  the  homogeneous,  which  is 
consequent  upon  the  different  exposures  of  the  dif- 
ferent parts  of  any  limited  aggregate  to  incident 
forces. 

The  transformations  hence  resulting  are — 

10.  The  multiplication  of  effects.  Every  mass 
and  part  of  a  mass  on  which  a  force  falls  subdivides 
and  differentiates  that  force,  which  thereupon  pro- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  197 

ceeds  to  work  a  variety  of  changes;  and  each  of 
these  becomes  the  parent  of  similarly-multiplying 
changes;  the  multiplication  of  them  becoming  great- 
er in  proportion  as  the  aggregate  becomes  more 
heterogeneous.  And  these  two  causes  of  increasing 
differentiations  are  furthered  by 

11.  Segregation,  which  is  a  process  tending  ever 
to  separate  unlike  units  and  to  bring  together  like 
units — so  serving  continually  to  sharpen,  or  make 
definite,  differentiations  otherwise  caused. 

12.  Equilibration  is  the  final  result  of  these  trans- 
formations which  an  evolving  aggregate  undergoes. 
The  changes  go  on  until  there  is  reached  an  equi- 
librium between  the  forces  which  all  parts  of  the 
aggregate  are  exposed  to  and  the  forces  these  parts 
oppose  to  them. 

Equilibration  may  pass  through  a  transition  stage 
of  balanced  motions  (as  in  a  planetary  system)  or  of 
balanced  functions  (as  in  a  living  body)  on  the  way 
to  ultimate  equilibrium;  but  the  state  of  rest  in  in- 
organic bodies,  or  death  in  organic  bodies,  is  the 
necessary  limit  of  the  changes  constituting  evolution. 

13.  Dissolution  is  the  counter-change  which 
sooner  or  later  every  evolved  aggregate  undergoes. 
Remaining  exposed  to  surrounding  forces  that  are 
unequilibrated,  each  aggregate  is  ever  liable  to  be 
dissipated  by  the  increase,  gradual  or  sudden,  of  its 
contained  motion;  and  its  dissipation,  quickly  under- 
gone by  bodies  lately  animate,  and  slowly  undergone 
by  inanimate  masses,  remains  to  be  undergone  at  an 


198 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


indefinitely  remote  period  by  each  planetary  and 
stellar  mass,  which  since  an  indefinitely  distant 
period  in  the  past  has  been  slowly  evolving;  the 
cycle  of  its  transformations  being  thus  completed. 

14.  This  rhythm  of  evolution  and  dissolution, 
completing  itself  during  short  periods  in  small  ag- 
gregates, and  in  the  vast  aggregates  distributed 
through  space  completing  itself  in  periods  immeasur- 
able by  human  thought,  is,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  uni- 
versal and  eternal — each  alternating  phase  of  the 
process  predominating  now  in  this  region  of  space 
and  now  in  that,  as  local  conditions  determine. 

15.  All  these  phenomena,  from  their  great  fea- 
tures down  to  their  minutest  details,  are  necessary 
results  of  the  persistence  of  force  under  its  forms  of 
matter  and  motion.  Given  these  as  distributed 
through  space,  and  their  quantities  being  unchange- 
able, either  by  increase  or  decrease,  there  inevitably 
result  the  continuous  redistributions  distinguishable 
as  evolution  and  dissolution,  as  well  as  all  these  spe- 
cial traits  above  enumerated. 

16.  That  which  persists  unchanging  in  quantity, 
but  ever  changing  in  form,  under  these  sensible  ap- 
pearances which  the  universe  presents  to  us,  tran- 
scends human  knowledge  and  conception — is  an  un- 
known and  unknowable  power,  which  we  are  obliged 
to  recognise  as  without  limit  in  space  and  without 
beginning  or  end  in  time. 

All  that  is  comprised  in  the  dozen  volumes  which, 
exclusive  of  the  minor  works  and  the  Sociological 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


199 


Tables,  form  the  great  body  of  the  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy, is  the  expansion  of  this  abstract.  The  gen- 
eral lines  laid  down  in  that  Philosophy  have  become 
a  permanent  way  along  which  investigation  will  con- 
tinue to  travel.  The  revisions  which  may  be  called 
for  will  not  affect  it  fundamentally,  being  limited  to 
details,  more  especially  in  the  settlement  of  the  rela- 
tive functions  of  individuals  and  communities,  and 
cognate  questions.  Into  these  we  cannot  enter  here. 
Suffice  it,  that  to  those  who  have  the  rare  possession 
of  sound  mental  peptics,  no  more  nutritive  diet  can 
be  recommended  than  is  supplied  by  First  Princi- 
ples and  the  works  in  which  its  theses  are  developed. 
For  those  who,  blessed  with  good  digestion,  lack 
leisure,  there  is  provided  in  a  convenient  volume  the 
excellent  epitome  which  Mr.  Howard  Collins  has 
prepared. 

The  prospectus  of  the  then  proposed  issue  of  the 
series  of  works  which,  beginning  with  First  Princi- 
ples, ends  with  the  Principles  of  Sociology  (1862- 
1896),  was  issued  by  Mr.  Spencer  in  March,  i860. 
Through  his  courtesy  the  writer  has  seen  the  docu- 
ments which  prove  that  the  first  draft  of  that  pro- 
spectus was  written  out  on  the  6th  of  January,  1858, 
and  that  it  was  the  occasion  of  an  interesting  corre- 
spondence between  Mr.  Spencer  and  his  father — 
mainly  in  the  form  of  questions  from  the  latter — dur- 
ing that  month.  The  record  of  these  facts  is  of  some 
moment  as  evidencing  that  the  scheme  of  the  Syn- 
thetic Philosophy  took  definite  shape  in  1857.  There- 


200  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

fore,  the  Theory  of  Evolution,  dealing  with  the  uni- 
verse as  a  whole,  was  formulated  some  months  before 
the  publication  of  the  Darwin- Wallace  paper,  in  which 
only  organic  evolution  was  discussed.  The  Origin  of 
Species,  as  the  outcome  of  that  paper,  showed  that 
the  action  of  natural  selection  is  a  sufficing  cause  for 
the  production  of  new  life-forms,  and  thus  knocked 
the  bottom  out  of  the  old  belief  in  special  creation. 

The  general  doctrine  of  Evolution,  however,  is 
not  so  vitally  related  to  that  of  natural  selection  that 
the  two  stand  or  fall  together.  The  evidence  as  to 
the  connection  between  the  succession  of  past  life- 
forms  which,  regard  being  had  to  the  well-nigh  ob- 
literated record,  has  been  supplied  by  the  fossil- 
yielding  rocks;  and  the  evidence  as  to  the  unbroken 
development  of  the  highest  plants  and  animals  from 
the  lowest  which  more  and  rriore  confirms  the  theory 
of  Von  Baer;  alike  furnish  a  body  of  testimony  plac- 
ing the  doctrine  of  Organic  Evolution  on  a  founda- 
tion that  can  never  be  shaken.  And,  firm  as  that, 
stands  the  doctrine  of  Inorganic  Evolution  upon  the 
support  given  by  modern  science  to  the  speculations 
of  Immanuel  Kant. 

There  is  the  more  need  for  laying  stress  on  this 
because  recent  discussions,  revealing  divided  opin- 
ions among  biologists  as  to  the  sufficiency  of  natural 
selection  as  a  cause  of  all  modifications  in  the  struc- 
ture of  living  things,  lead  timid  or  half-informed 
minds  to  hope  that  the  doctrine  of  Evolution  may  yet 
turn  out  not  to  be  true.    It  is  in  such  stratum  of  intel- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  2OI 

ligence  that  there  lurks  the  feeHng,  whenever  some 
old  inscription  or  monument  verifying  statements 
in  the  Bible  is  discovered,  that  the  infallibility  of  that 
book  has  further  proof.  For  example,  until  the  pres- 
ent year,  not  a  single  confirmatory  piece  of  evidence 
as  to  the  story  of  the  Exodus  was  forthcoming  from 
Egypt  itself.  Even  the  inscription  which  has  come 
to  light  does  not,  in  the  judgment  of  such  an  expert 
as  Dr.  Flinders  Petrie,  supply  the  exact  confirmation 
desired.  But  let  that  irrefragable  witness  appear, 
and  while  the  historian  will  welcome  it  as  evidence 
of  the  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  thus  throw- 
ing light  on  the  movements  of  races,  and  adding 
to  the  historical  value  of  the  Pentateuch;  the  aver- 
age orthodox  believer  will  feel  a  vague  sort  of  satis- 
faction that  the  foundations  of  his  belief  in  the  Trin- 
ity and  the  Incarnation  are  somehow  strengthened. 

3.  Thomas  Henry  Huxley. 

Thomas  Henry  Huxley  was  born  at  Ealing,  on 
the  4th  of  May,  1825.  Montaigne  tells  us  that  he 
was  "  borne  between  eleven  of  the  clock  and  noone," 
and,  with  like  quaint  precision,  Huxley  gives  the 
hour  of  his  birth  as  "  about  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning."  Speaking  of  his  first  Christian  name,  he 
humorously  said  that,  by  curious  chance,  his  parents 
chose  that  of  the  particular  apostle  with  whom,  as 
the  doubting  member  of  the  twelve,  he  had  always 
felt  most  sympathy. 

Concerning  his  father,  who  was  ''  one  of  the  mas- 
14 


202  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

ters  in  a  large  semi-public  school "  (the  father  of 
Herbert  Spencer,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  also  a 
schoolmaster),  Huxley  has  little  to  say  in  the  slight 
autobiographical  sketch  reprinted  as  an  introduction 
to  the  first  volume  of  the  Collected  Essays.  On  that 
side,  he  tells  us,  he  could  find  hardly  any  trace  in 
himself,  except  a  certain  faculty  for  drawing,  and  a 
certain  hotness  of  temper.  ''  Physically  and  men- 
tally," he  was  the  son  of  his  mother,  "  a  slender 
brunette,  of  an  emotional  and  energetic  tempera- 
ment." His  school  training  was  brief  and  profitless; 
his  tastes  were  mechanical,  and  but  for  lack  of  means, 
he  would  have  started  life  in  the  same  profession 
which  Herbert  Spencer  followed  till  he  forsook 
Messrs.  Fox's  office  for  journalism.  So,  with  a  cer- 
tain shrinking  from  anatomical  work,  Huxley  studied 
medicine  for  a  time  under  a  relative,  and  in  his  seven- 
teenth year  entered  the  Charing  Cross  Hospital 
School  as  a  student.  In  those  days  there  was  no  in- 
struction in  physics,  and  only  in  such  branch  of 
chemistry  as  dealt  with  the  nature  of  drugs.  Non 
multa,  sed  midtum,  and  what  was  lacking  in  breadth 
was,  perhaps,  gained  in  thoroughness.  Huxley  had 
as  excellent  a  teacher  in  Wharton  Jones  as  the  latter 
had  a  promising  pupil  in  Huxley,  and  in  working 
with  the  microscope,  the  evidence  of  that  came  in 
his  discovery  of  a  certain  root-sheath  in  the  hair, 
which  has  since  then  been  known  as  "  Huxley's 
layer." 

Up  to  the  time  of  his  studentship,  he  had  been 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


203 


left,  intellectually,  altogether  to  his  own  devices. 
He  tells  us  that  he  was  a  voracious  and  omnivorous 
reader,  "  a  dreamer  and  speculator  of  the  first  water, 
well  endowed  with  that  splendid  courage  in  attacking 
any  and  every  subject  which  is  the  blessed  compensa- 
tion of  youth  and  inexperience."  Among  the  books 
and  essays  that  impressed  him  were  Guizot's  History 
of  Civilization;  and  Sir  William  Hamilton's  essay 
On  the  Philosophy  of  the  Unconditioned  which  he 
accidentally  came  upon  in  an  odd  volume  of  the 
Edinburgh  Review.  This,  he  adds,  was  "  devoured 
with  avidity,"  and  it  stamped  upon  his  mind  the 
strong  conviction  "  that  on  even  the  most  solemn 
and  important  of  questions,  men  are  apt  to  take 
cunning  phrases  for  answers;  and  that  the  limitation 
of  our  faculties,  in  a  great  number  of  cases,  renders 
real  answers  to  such  questions,  not  merely  actually 
impossible,  but  theoretically  inconceivable."  Thus, 
before  he  was  out  of  his  teens,  the  philosophy  that 
ruled  his  life-teaching  was  taking  definite  shape. 

In  1845,  he  won  his  M.  B.  London  with  honours 
in  anatomy  and  physiology,  and  after  a  few  months' 
practice  at  the  East  End,  applied,  at  the  instance  of 
his  senior  fellow-student,  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  Joseph 
Fayrer,  for  an  appointment  in  the  medical  service  of 
the  Navy.  At  the  end  of  two  months  he  was  for- 
tunate enough  to  be  entered  on  the  books  of  Nelson's 
old  ship,  the  Victory,  for  duty  at  Haslar  Hospital. 
His  ofificial  chief  was  the  famous  Arctic  Explorer,  Sir 
John   Richardson,  through  whose  recommendation 


204  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

he  was  appointed,  seven  months  later,  assistant  sur- 
geon of  the  Rattlesnake.  That  ship,  commanded  by 
Captain  Owen  Stanley,  was  commissioned  to  survey 
the  intricate  passage  within  the  Barrier  Reef  skirting 
the  eastern  shores  of  AustraHa,  and  to  explore  the 
sea  lying  between  the  northern  end  of  that  reef  and 
New  Guinea.  It  was  the  best  apprenticeship  to  what 
was  eventually  the  work  of  Huxley's  life — the  solu- 
tion of  biological  problems  and  the  indication  of  their 
far-reaching  significance.  Darwin  and  Hooker  had 
passed  through  a  like  marine  curriculum.  The  for- 
mer served  as  naturalist  on  board  the  Beagle  when 
she  sailed  on  her  voyage  round  the  world  in  1831; 
the  latter  as  assistant-surgeon  on  board  the  Erebus 
on  her  Antarctic  Expedition  in  1839.  Fortune  was 
to  bring  the  three  shoulder  to  shoulder  when  the 
battle  against  the  theory  of  the  immutability  of  spe- 
cies was  fought. 

During  his  four-years'  absence  Huxley,  in  whom 
the  biologist  dominated  the  doctor,  made  observa- 
tions on  the  various  marine  animals  collected.  These 
he  sent  home  to  the  Linnsean  Society  in  vain  hope  of 
acceptance.  A  more  elaborate  paper  to  the  Royal 
Society,  communicated  through  the  Bishop  of- Nor- 
wich (author  of  a  book  on  birds,  and  father  of  Dean 
Stanley),  secured  the  coveted  honour  of  publication, 
and  on  Huxley's  return  in  1850  a  "  huge  packet  of 
separate  copies "  awaited  him.  It  dealt  with  the 
anatomy  and  affinities  of  the  Medusae,  and  the  origi- 
nal research  which  it  evidenced  justified  his  election 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


205 


in  185 1  to  the  fellowship  of  the  society  whose  presi- 
dential chair  he  was  in  after  years  to  adorn.  He 
would  seem  to  have  won  the  blue  ribbon  of  science 
^er  saltum.  Probably,  so  far  as  their  biological  value 
is  concerned,  nothing  that  he  did  subsequently  has 
surpassed  his  contributions  to  scientific  literature  at 
that  period;  but  if  his  services  to  knowledge  had 
been  limited  to  the  class  of  work  which  they  repre- 
sent, he  would  have  remained  only  a  distinguished 
specialist.  Further  recognition  of  his  well-won  posi- 
tion came  in  the  award  of  the  society's  royal  medal. 
But  fellowships  and  medals  keep  no  wolf  from  the 
door,  and  Huxley  was  a  poor  man.  After  vain  at- 
tempts to  obtain,  first,  a  professorship  of  physiology 
in  England,  and  then  a  chair  of  natural  history  at 
Toronto  (Tyndall  was  at  the  same  time  an  unsuc- 
cessful candidate  for  the  chair  of  physics  in  the  same 
university),  a  settled  position  was  secured  by  Sir 
Henry  de  la  Beche's  offer  of  the  professorship  of 
palaeontology  and  of  the  lectureship  on  natural  his- 
tory in  the  Royal  School  of  Mines,  vacated  by  Ed- 
ward Forbes.  That  was  in  1854.  Between  that  date 
and  the  time  of  his  return  Huxley  had  contributed 
a  number  of  valuable  papers  on  the  structure  of  the 
invertebrates,  and  on  histology,  or  the  science  of 
tissues.  But  these,  while  adding  to  his  established 
qualifications  for  a  scientific  appointment,  demand 
no  detailed  reference  here.  With  both  chairs  there 
was  united  the  curatorship  of  the  fossil  collections 
in  the  Museum  of  Practical  Geology,  and  these,  with 


2o6  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

the  inspectorship  of  salmon  fisheries,  which  office  he 
accepted  in  1881,  complete  the  list  of  Huxley's  more 
important  public  appointments.  He  surrendered 
them  all  in  1885,  having  reached  the  age  at  which, 
as  he  jocosely  remarked  to  the  writer,  "  Every  sci- 
entific man  ought  to  be  poleaxed."  Perhaps  he 
dreaded  the  conservatism  of  attitude,  the  non-recep- 
tivity to  new  ideas,  which  often  accompany  old  age. 
But  for  himself  such  fears  were  needless.  He  was 
never  of  robust  constitution;  in  addition  to  the  last- 
ing effects  of  an  illness  in  boyhood,  Carlyle's  "  ac- 
cursed Hag,"  dyspepsia,  which  troubled  both  Dar- 
win and  Bates  for  the  rest  of  their  lives  after  their 
return  from  abroad,  troubled  him.  Therefore,  con- 
siderations of  health  mainly  prompted  the  surrender 
of  his  varied  official  responsibilities,  the  loyal  dis- 
charge of  which  met  with  becoming  recognition  in 
the  grant  of  a  pension.  This  secured  a  modest  com- 
petence in  the  evening  of  life  to  one  who  had  never 
been  wealthy,  and  who  had  never  coveted  wealth. 
To  Huxley  may  fitly  be  applied  what  Faraday  said 
of  himself,  that  he  had  "  no  time  to  make  money." 
And  yet,  to  his  abiding  discredit,  the  present  editor 
of  Punch  allowed  his  theological  animus,  which  had 
already  been  shown  in  abortive  attempts  in  the  pages 
of  that  "  facetious "  journal  to  appraise  a  Roman 
Catholic  biologist  at  the  expense  of  Huxley,  to  fur- 
ther degrade  itself  by  affixing  the  letters  "  L.  S.  D." 
to  his  name  in  a  character-sketch. 

His  public  life  may  be  said  to  date  from  1854. 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


207 


The  duties  which  he  then  undertook  included  the 
deHvery  of  a  course  of  lectures  to  working  men 
every  alternate  year.  Some  of  these — models  of 
their  kind — have  been  reissued  in  the  Collected  Es- 
says. Among  the  most  notable  are  those  on  Our 
Knowledge  of  the  Causes  of  the  Phenomena  of  Or- 
ganic Nature.  At  the  outset  of  his  public  career 
lecturing  was  as  distasteful  to  him  as  in  earlier  years 
the  trouble  of  writing  was  detestable.  But  mother 
wit  and  "  needs  must "  trained  him  in  a  short  time 
to  win  the  ear  of  an  audience.  One  evening  in  1852 
he  made  his  debut  at  the  Royal  Institution,  and  the 
next  day  he  received  a  letter  charging  him  with 
every  possible  fault  that  a  lecturer  could  commit — 
ungraceful  stoop,  awkwardness  in  use  of  hands, 
mumbHng  of  words,  or  dropping  them  down  the 
shirt  front.  The  lesson  was  timely,  and  its  effect 
salutary.  Huxley  was  fgnd  of  telling  this  story,  and 
it  is  worth  recording — if  but  as  encouragement  to 
stammerers  who  have  something  to  say — at  what 
price  he  "  bought  this  freedom "  which  held  an 
audience  spellbound.  How  he  thus  held  it  in  later 
years  they  will  remember  who  in  the  packed  theatre 
of  the  Royal  Institution  listened  on  the  evening  of 
Friday,  9th  of  April,  1880,  to  his  lecture  On  the  Com- 
ing of  Age  of  the  Origin  of  Species. 

In  1856  Huxley  visited  the  glaciers  of  the  Alps 
with  Tyndall,  the  result  appearing  in  their  joint 
authorship  of  a  paper  on  Glacial  Phenomena  in  the 
Philosophical   Transactions   of   the   following   year. 


2o8  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

But  this  was  a  rare  interlude.  What  time  could  be 
wrested  from  daily  routine  was  given  to  the  study  of 
invertebrate  and  vertebrate  morphology,  palaeon- 
tology, and  ethnology,  familiarity  with  which  was  no 
mean  equipment  for  the  conflict  soon  to  rage  round 
these  seemingly  pacific  materials  when  their  deep 
import  was  declared.  The  outcome  of  such  varied 
industry  is  apparent  to  the  student  of  scientific  me- 
moirs. But  a  recital  of  the  titles  of  papers  con- 
tributed to  these,  as  e.  g..  On  Ceratodus,  Hypero- 
dapedon  Gordoni,  Hypsilophodon,  Telerpeton,  and 
so  forth,  will  not  here  tend  to  edification.  The 
original  and  elaborate  investigations  which  they  em- 
body have  had  recognition  in  the  degrees  and  medals 
which  decorated  the  illustrious  author.  But  it  is  not 
by  these  that  Huxley's  renown  as  one  of  the  most 
richly-endowed  and  widely-cultured  personalities  of 
the  Victorian  era  will  endure.  They  might  sink  into 
the  oblivion  which  buries  most  purely  technical  work 
without  in  any  way  affecting  that  foremost  place 
which  he  fills  in  the  ranks  of  philosophical  biolo- 
gists both  as  clear-headed  thinker  and  luminous  in- 
terpreter. 

In  this  high  function  the  publication  of  the  Ori- 
gin of  Species  gave  him  his  opportunity.  That  was 
in  1859.  As  with  Hooker  and  Bates,  his  experiences 
as  a  traveller,  and,  more  than  this,  his  penetrating 
inquiry  into  significances  and  relations,  prepared  his 
mind  for  acceptance  of  the  theory  of  descent  with 
modification  of  living  forms  from  one  stock.    Hence 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


209 


the  mutability,  as  against  the  old  theory  of  the  fixity, 
of  species. 

In  the  chapter  On  the  Reception  of  the  Origin 
of  Species,  which  Huxley  contributed  to  Darwin's 
Life  and  Letters,  he  gives  an  interesting  account  of 
his  attitude  toward  that  burning  question.  He 
says — 

"  I  think  that  I  must  have  read  the  Vestiges  (see 
p.  119)  before  I  left  England  in  1846,  but  if  I  did 
the  book  made  very  little  impression  upon  me,  and 
I  was  not  brought  into  serious  contact  with  the 
'  species '  question  until  after  1850.  At  that  time  I 
had  long  done  with  the  Pentateuchal  cosmogony 
which  had  been  impressed  upon  my  childish  under- 
standing as  Divine  truth  with  all  the  authority  of 
parents  and  instructors,  and  from  which  it  had  cost 
me  many  a  struggle  to  get  free.  But  my  mind  was 
unbiassed  in  respect  of  any  doctrine  which  presented 
itself  if  it  professed  to  be  based  on  purely  philo- 
sophical and  scientific  reasoning.  ...  I  had  not  then 
and  I  have  not  now  the  smallest  a  priori  objection  to 
raise  to  the  account  of  the  creation  of  animals  and 
plants  given  in  Paradise  Lost,  in  which  Milton  so 
vividly  embodies  the  natural  sense  of  Genesis.  Far 
be  it  from  me  to  say  that  it  is  untrue  because  it 
is  impossible.  I  confine  myself  to  what  must  be 
regarded  as  a  modest  and  reasonable  request  for 
some  particle  of  evidence  that  the  existing  species  of 
animals  and  plants  did  originate  in  that  way  as  a 


2IO  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

condition  of  my  belief  in  a  statement  which  appears 
to  me  to  be  highly  improbable.  .  .  . 

"  And  by  way  of  being  perfectly  fair,  I  had  ex- 
actly the  same  answer  to  give  to  the  evolutionists 
of  1851-58.  Within  the  ranks  of  the  biologists  of 
that  time  I  met  with  nobody,  except  Dr.  Grant,  of 
University  College,  who  had  a  word  to  say  for  Evo- 
lution, and  his  advocacy  was  not  calculated  to  ad- 
vance the  cause.  Outside  these  ranks  the  only  per- 
son known  to  me  whose  knowledge  and  capacity 
compelled  respect,  and  who  was  at  the  same  time  a 
thoroughgoing  evolutionist,  was  Mr.  Herbert  Spen- 
cer, whose  acquaintance  I  made,  I  think,  in  1852, 
and  then  entered  into  the  bonds  of  a  friendship 
which  I  am  happy  to  think  has  known  no  interrup- 
tion. Many  and  prolonged  were  the  battles  we 
fought  on  this  topic.  But  even  my  friend's  rare  dia- 
lectic skill  and  copiousness  of  apt  illustration  could 
not  drive  me  from  my  agnostic  position.  I  took  my 
stand  upon  two  grounds :  firstly,  that  up  to  that  time 
the  evidence  in  favour  of  transmutation  was  wholly 
insufficient;  and  secondly,  that  no  suggestion  re- 
specting the  causes  of  the  transmutation  assumed 
which  had  been  made  was  in  any  way  adequate  to 
explain  the  phenomena.  Looking  back  at  the  state 
of  knowledge  at  that  time,  I  really  do  not  see  that 
any  other  conclusion  was  justifiable. 

"  As  I  have  already  said,  I  imagine  that  most  of 
those  of  my  contemporaries  who  thought  seriously 
about  the  matter  were  very  much  in  my  own  state 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  21 1 

of  mind — inclined  to  say  to  both  Mosaists  and  Evo- 
lutionists '  A  plague  on  both  your  houses ! '  and 
disposed  to  turn  aside  from  an  interminable  and  ap- 
parently fruitless  discussion  to  labour  in  the  fertile 
fields  of  ascertainable  fact.  And  I  may  therefore 
further  suppose  that  the  pubHcation  of  the  Darwin 
and  Wallace  papers  in  1858,  and  still  more  that  of 
the  Origin  in  1859,  had  the  effect  upon  them  of  the 
flash  of  light,  which  to  a  man  who  has  lost  him- 
self in  a  dark  night  suddenly  reveals  a  road  which, 
whether  it  takes  him  straight  home  or  not,  certainly 
goes  his  way.  That  which  we  were  looking  for  and 
could  not  find  was  a  hypothesis  respecting  the  origin 
of  known  organic  forms  which  assumed  the  opera- 
tion of  no  causes  but  such  as  could  be  proved  to  be 
actually  at  work.  We  wanted,  not  to  pin  our  faith 
to  that  or  any  other  speculation,  but  to  get  hold  of 
clear  and  definite  conceptions  which  could  be 
brought  face  to  face  with  facts,  and  have  their 
validity  tested.  The  Origin  provided  us  with  the 
working  hypothesis  we  sought.  Moreover,  it  did  the 
immense  service  of  freeing  us  for  ever  from  the  di- 
lemma— refuse  to  accept  the  creation  hypothesis, 
and  what  have  you  to  propose  that  can  be  accepted 
by  any  cautious  reasoner?  In  1857  I  had  no  answer 
ready,  and  I  do  not  think  that  any  one  else  had. 
A  year  later  we  reproached  ourselves  with  dulness  for 
being  perplexed  by  such  an  inquiry.  My  reflection, 
when  I  first  made  myself  master  of  the  central  idea 
of  the  Origin  was  '  How  extremely  stupid  not  to 


212  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

have  thought  of  that!'  I  suppose  that  Columbus's 
companions  said  much  the  same  when  he  made  the 
t.^%  stand  on  end.  The  facts  of  variabihty,  of  the 
struggle  for  existence,  of  adaptation  to  conditions, 
were  notorious  enough,  but  none  of  us  had  suspected 
that  the  road  to  the  heart  of  the  species  problem  lay 
through  them,  until  Darwin  and  Wallace  dispelled 
the  darkness,  and  the  beacon-fire  of  the  Origin 
guided  the  benighted." 

But  the  disciple  soon  outstripped  the  master. 
As  was  said  of  Luther  in  relation  to  Erasmus,  Hux- 
ley hatched  the  ^%^  that  Darwin  laid.  For  in  the 
Origin  of  Species  the  theory  was  not  pushed  to  its 
obvious  conclusion:  Darwin  only  hinted  that  it 
"  would  throw  much  light  on  the  origin  of  man  and 
his  history."  His  silence,  as  he  candidly  tells  us  in 
the  Introduction  to  the  Descent  of  Man,  was  due  to 
a  desire  "  not  to  add  to  the  prejudices  against  his 
views."  No  such  hesitancy  kept  Huxley  silent.  In 
the  spirit  of  Plato's  Laws,  he  followed  the  argument 
whithersoever  it  led.  In  i860  he  delivered  a  course 
of  lectures  to  working-men  On  the  Relations  of  Man 
to  the  Lower  Animals,  and  in  1862,  a  couple  of  lec- 
tures on  the  same  subject  at  the  Edinburgh  Philo- 
sophical Institution.  The  important  and  significant 
feature  of  these  discourses  was  the  demonstration 
that  no  cerebral  barrier  divides  man  from  apes;  that 
the  attempt  to  draw  a  psychical  distinction  between 
him  and  the  lower  animals  is  futile ;  and  that  "  even 
the  highest  faculties  of  feeling  and  of  intellect  begin 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


213 


to  germinate  in  lower  forms  of  life."  The  lectures 
were  published  in  1863  in  a  volume  entitled  Evidence 
as  to  Man's  Place  in  Nature;  and  it  was  with  pride 
warranted  by  the  results  of  subsequent  researches 
that  Huxley,  in  a  letter  to  the  writer,  thus  refers  to 
the  book  when  arranging  for  its  reissue  among  the 
Collected  Essays — 

I  was  looking  through  Man's  Place  in  Nature  the  other 
day.  I  do  not  think  there  is  a  word  I  need  delete,  nor  any- 
thing I  need  add,  except  in  confirmation  and  extension  of  the 
doctrine  there  laid  down.  That  is  great  good  fortune  for  a 
book  thirty  years  old,  and  one  that  a  very  shrewd  friend  of 
mine  implored  me  not  to  publish,  as  it  would  certainly  ruin  all 
my  prospects. 

The  sparse  annotations  to  the  whole  series  of  re- 
printed matter  show  that  the  like  permanence  at- 
tends all  his  writings.  And  yet,  true  workman, 
with  ideal  ever  lying  ahead,  as  he  was,  he  remarked 
to  the  writer  that  never  did  a  book  come  hot  from 
the  press,  but  he  wished  that  he  could  suppress  it 
and  rewrite  it. 

But  before  dealing  with  the  momentous  issues 
raised  in  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  we  must  return 
to  i860.  For  that  was  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang " 
period.  Then,  at  Oxford,  "  home  of  lost  causes,"  as 
Matthew  Arnold  apostrophizes  her  in  the  Preface  to 
his  Essays  in  Criticism,  was  fought,  on  Saturday, 
30th  of  June,  a  memorable  duel  between  biologist  and 
bishop;  perhaps  in  its  issues,  more  memorable  than 
the  historic  discussion  on  the  traditional  doctrine  of 


214  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

special  creation  between  Cuvier  and  Geoffrey  Saint- 
Hilaire  in  the  French  Academy  in  1830. 

Both  Huxley  and  Wilberforce  were  doughty 
champions.  The  scene  of  combat,  the  Museum 
Library,  was  crammed  to  suffocation.  Fainting 
women  were  carried  out.  There  had  been  ''  words  " 
between  Owen  and  Huxley  on  the  previous  Thurs- 
day. Owen  contended  that  there  were  certain  funda- 
mental differences  between  the  brains  of  man  and 
apes.  Huxley  met  this  with  "  direct  and  unqualified 
contradiction,"  and  pledged  himself  to  "  justify  that 
unusual  procedure  elsewhere."  No  wonder  that  the 
atmosphere  was  electric.  The  bishop  was  up  to 
time.  Declamation  usurped  the  vacant  place  of  ar- 
gument in  his  speech,  and  the  declamation  became 
acrid.  He  finished  his  harangue  by  asking  Huxley 
whether  he  was  related  by  his  grandfather's  or 
grandmother's  side  to  an  ape.  "  The  Lord  hath  de- 
livered him  into  my  hands,"  whispered  Huxley  to 
a  friend  at  his  side,  as  he  rose  to  reply.  After  set- 
ting his  opponent  an  example  in  demonstrating  his 
case  by  evidence  which,  although  refuting  Owen, 
evoked  no  admission  of  error  from  him  then  or  ever 
after,  Huxley  referred  to  the  personal  remark  of 
Wilberforce.    And  this  is  what  he  said — 

I  asserted,  and  I  repeat,  that  a  man  has  no  reason  to  be 
ashamed  of  having  an  ape  for  his  grandfather.  If  there  were 
an  ancestor  whom  I  should  feel  shame  in  recalling,  it  would  be 
a  man,  a  man  of  restless  and  versatile  intellect,  who,  not  con- 
tent with  an  equivocal  success  in  his  own  sphere  of  activity, 
plunges  into  scientific  questions  with  which  he  has  no  real 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


215 


acquaintance,  only  to  obscure  them  by  an  aimless  rhetoric,  and 
distract  the  attention  of  his  hearers  from  the  real  point  at  issue 
by  eloquent  digressions,  and  skilled  appeals  to  religious  preju- 
dice. 

Perhaps  the  best  comment  on  a  piece  of  what  is 
now  ancient  history  is  to  quote  the  admissions  made 
by  Lord  Salisbury — a  rigid  High  Churchman — in 
his  presidential  address  to  the  British  Association  in 
this  same  city  of  Oxford  in  1894 — 

Few  now  are  found  to  doubt  that  animals  separated  by 
differences  far  exceeding  those  that  distinguish  what  we  know 
as  species  have  yet  descended  from  common  ancestors.  .  .  . 
Darwin  has,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  disposed  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  immutability  of  species. 

Few,  also,  are  now  found  to  doubt  not  only  that 
doctrine,  but  also  the  doctrine  that  all  life-forms 
have  a  common  origin;  plants  and  animals  being 
alike  built-up  of  matter  which  is  identical  in  char- 
acter. This  doctrine,  to-day  a  commonplace  of  bi- 
ology, was,  thirty  years  ago,  rank  heresy,  since  it 
seemed  to  reduce  the  soul  of  man  to  the  level  of  his 
biliary  duct.  Hence  the  Oxford  storm  was  but  a 
capful  of  wind  compared  with  that  which  raged 
round  Huxley's  lecture  on  The  Physical  Basis  of 
Life  delivered,  thus  aggravating  the  ofifence,  on  a 
"Sabbath"  evening  in  Edinburgh  in  1868.  People 
had  settled  down,  with  more  or  less  vague  under- 
standing of  the  matter,  into  quiescent  acceptance  of 
Darwinism.  And  now  their  somnolence  was  rudely 
shaken  by  this  Southron  troubler  of  Israel,  with  his 
production  of  a  bottle  of  solution  of  smelling  salts. 


2i6  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

and  a  pinch  or  two  of  other  ingredients,  which  repre- 
sented the  elementary  substances  entering  into  the 
composition  of  every  Hving  thing  from  a  jelly-speck 
to  man.  Well  might  the  removal  of  the  stopper  to 
that  bottle  take  their  breath  away!  Microscopists, 
philosophers  "  so-called,"  and  clerics  alike  raised  the 
cry  of  "  gross  materiahsm,"  never  pausing  to  read 
Huxley's  anticipatory  answer  to  the  baseless  charge, 
an  answer  repeated  again  and  again  in  his  writings, 
as  in  the  essay  on  Descartes's  Discourse  touching 
the  method  of  using  one's  reason  rightly,  and  in  his 
Hume.  In  season  and  out  of  season  he  never  wearies 
In  insisting  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  doctrine  in- 
consistent with  the  purest  idealism.  "  All  the  phe- 
nomena of  Nature  are,  in  their  ultimate  analysis, 
known  to  us  only  as  facts  of  consciousness."  The 
cyclone  thus  raised  travelled  westward  on  the  heels 
of  Tyndall,  when  in  1874  he  asserted  the  funda- 
mental identity  of  the  organic  and  inorganic;  dash- 
ing, as  his  Celtic  blood  stirred  him,  the  statements 
with  a  touch  of  poetry  in  the  famous  phrase  that 
"  the  genius  of  Newton  was  potential  in  the  fires  of 
the  sun." 

The  ancient  belief  in  "  spontaneous  generation," 
which  Redi's  experiments  upset,  was  the  subject  of 
Huxley's  Presidential  Address  to  the  British  Asso- 
ciation in  1870.  But  while  he  showed  how  subse- 
quent investigation  confirmed  the  doctrine  of  Abio- 
genesis,  or  the  non-production  of  living  from  dead 
matter,  he  made  this  statement  in  support  of  Tyn- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


217 


dall's  creed  as  to  the  fundamental  unity  of  the  vital 
and  the  non-vital. 

"  Looking  back  through  the  prodigious  vista  of 
the  past,  I  find  no  record  of  the  commencement  of 
life,  and  therefore  I  am  devoid  of  any  means  of 
forming  a  definite  conclusion  as  to  the  conditions 
of  its  appearance.  Belief,  in  the  scientific  sense  of 
the  word,  is  a  serious  matter,  and  needs  strong 
foundations.  To  say,  therefore,  in  the  admitted  ab- 
sence of  evidence,  that  I  have  any  belief  as  to  the 
mode  in  which  the  existing  forms  of  life  have  origi- 
nated, would  be  using  words  in  a  wrong  sense.  But 
expectation  is  permissible  where  belief  is  not;  and  if 
it  were  given  to  me  to  look  beyond  the  abyss  of 
geologically  recorded  time  to  the  still  more  remote 
period  when  the  earth  was  passing  through  physical 
and  chemical  conditions  which  it  can  no  more  see 
again  than  a  man  can  recall  his  infancy,  I  should 
expect  to  be  a  witness  of  the  evolution  of  living 
protoplasm  from  non-living  matter.  I  should  expect 
to  see  it  appear  under  forms  of  great  simplicity, 
endowed,  like  existing  fungi,  with  the  power  of  de- 
termining the  formation  of  new  protoplasm  from 
such  matters  as  ammonium  carbonates,  oxalates,  and 
tartrates,  alkaline  and  earthy  phosphates,  and  water, 
without  the  aid  of  light.  That  is  the  expectation  to 
which  analogical  reasoning  leads  me;  but  I  beg  you 
once  more  to  recollect  that  I  have  no  right  to  call 
my  opinion   anything  but  an  act  of  philosophical 

faith." 

15 


2i8  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

Huxley  was  the  Apostle  Paul  of  the  Darwinian 
movement,  and  one  main  result  of  his  active  propa- 
gandism  was  to  so  effectively  prepare  the  way  for 
the  reception  of  the  profounder  issues  involved  in 
the  theory  of  the  origin  of  species,  that  the  publica- 
tion of  Darwin's  Descent  of  Man  in  1871  created 
mild  excitement.  And  the  weight  of  his  support  is 
the  greater  because  he  never  omitted  to  lay  stress  on 
the  obscurity  which  still  hides  the  causes  of  variation 
which,  it  must  be  kept  in  mind,  natural  selection 
cannot  bring  about,  and  on  which  it  can  only  act. 
He  insists  on  the  non-implication  of  the  larger  the- 
ory with  its  subordinate  parts,  or  with  the  fate  of 
them.  The  "  doctrine  of  Evolution  is  a  generalisa- 
tion of  certain  facts  which  may  be  observed  by  any 
one  who  will  take  the  necessary  trouble."  The  facts 
are  those  which  biologists  class  under  the  heads  of 
Embryology  and  Palaeontology,  to  the  conclusions 
from  which  "  all  future  philosophical  and  theological 
speculations  will  have  to  accommodate  themselves." 

That  is  the  direction  of  the  revolution  to  which 
the  pubHcation  of  Man's  Place  in  Nature  gav-e  im- 
petus; and  it  is  in  the  all-round  application  of  the 
theory  of  man's  descent  that  Huxley  stands  fore- 
most, both  as  leader  and  lawgiver.  Mr.  Spencer  has 
never  shrunk  from  controversy,  but  he  has  not  for- 
saken the  study  for  the  arena,  and  hence  his  influ- 
ence, great  and  abiding  as  it  is,  has  been  less  direct 
and  personal  than  that  of  his  comrade,  "  ever  a 
fighter,"  who,  in  Browning's  words,  "  marched  breast 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


219 


forward."  Man's  Place  in  Nature  was  the  first  of  a 
series  of  deliverances  upon  the  most  serious  ques- 
tions that  can  occupy  the  mind;  and  its  successors, 
the  brilliant  monograph  on  Hume,  published  in 
1879,  and  the  Romanes  Lecture  on  Evolution  and 
Ethics,  delivered  at  Oxford,  i8th  of  May,  1893,  are 
but  expansions  of  the  thesis  laid  dow^n  in  that  won- 
derful little  volume;  wonderful  in  the  prevision  which 
fills  it,  and  in  the  justification  which  it  has  received 
from  all  subsequent  research,  notably  in  psychology. 
If  the  propositions  therein  maintained  are  un- 
shaken, then  there  is  no  possible  reconciliation  be- 
tween Evolution  and  Theology,  and  all  the  smooth 
sayings  in  attempted  harmonies  between  the  two, 
of  which  Professor  Drummond's  Ascent  of  Man  is  a 
type,  and  in  speeches  at  Church  Congresses  of  which 
that  delivered  by  Archdeacon  Wilson  (see  p.  161)  is 
a  type,  do  but  hypnotize  the  ''  light  half-believers  of 
our  casual  creeds."  To  some  there  are  "  signs  of  the 
times  "  which  point  to  approaching  acquiescence  in 
the  sentiment  of  Ovid,  paralleled  by  a  famous  pas- 
sage in  Gibbon,  that  "  the  existence  of  the  gods  is  a 
matter  of  public  policy,  and  we  must  believe  it  ac- 
cordingly." It  looks  like  the  prelude  to  surrender 
of  what  is  the  cardinal  dogma  of  Christianity  when 
we  read  in  the  Archdeacon's  address  that  "  the  the- 
ory of  Evolution  is  indeed  fatal  to  certain  quasi- 
mythological  doctrines  of  the  Atonement  which  once 
prevailed,  but  it  is  in  harmony  with  its  spirit."  For 
those  doctrines,  as  the  Venerable  apologist  may  learn 


220  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

from  the  evidence  in  Frazer's  Golden  Bough  (chap, 
iii,  passim),  are  wholly  mythological,  because  bar- 
baric. But,  in  truth,  there  is  not  a  dogma  of  Chris- 
tendom, not  a  foundation  on  which  the  dogma  rests, 
that  Evolution  does  not  traverse.  The  Church  of 
England  adopts  "  as  thoroughly  to  be  received  and 
believed,"  the  three  ancient  creeds,  known  as  the 
Apostles',  the  Athanasian,  and  the  Nicene.  There 
is  not  a  sentence  in  any  one  of  these  which  finds 
confirmation;  and  only  a  sentence  or  two  that  find 
neither  confirmation  nor  contradiction,  in  Evolution. 
The  question,  on  which  reams  of  paper  have  been 
wasted,  lies  in  a  nutshell.  The  statements  in  the 
Creeds  profess  to  have  warrant  in  the  direct  words 
of  the  Bible;  or  in  inferences  drawn  from  those 
words,  as  defined  by  the  Councils  of  the  Church. 
fThe  decisions  of  these  Councils  represent  the  opinion 
j/  /of  the  majority  of  fallible  men  composing  those  as- 
/  semblies,  and  no  number  of  fallible  parts  can  make 
1  an  infallible  whole.  As  Selden  quaintly  puts  it 
(Table  Talk,  xxx.  Councils),  "  they  talk  (but  blas- 
phemously enough)  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  president 
of  their  General  Councils,  when  the  truth  is  the  odd 
man  is  still  the  Holy  Ghost."  With  this  same  "  odd 
man  "  rested  the  decision  as  to  what  books  should 
be  included  or  excluded  from  the  collection  on  which 
the  Church  bases  its  authority  and  formulates  its 
creeds.  So,  in  the  last  result,  both  sets  of  questions 
are  settled  "by  a  human  tribunal  employing  a  circular 
argument.    But,  dismissing  this  for  the  moment,  let 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  221 

US  see  to  what  issues  the  controversy  is  narrowed,  to 
quote  Huxley's  words  (written  in  1871),  by  "  the 
spontaneous  retreat  of  the  enemy  from  nine-tenths 
of  the  territory  which  he  occupied  ten  years  ago." 

The  battle  has  no  longer  to  be  fought  over  the 
question  of  the  fundamental  identity  of  the  physical 
structure  of  man  and  of  the  anthropoid  apes.  The 
most  enlightened  Protestant  divines  accept  this  as 
proven;  and  not  a  few  Catholic  divines  are  adopting 
an  attitude  toward  it  which  is  only  the  prelude  to 
surrender.  Matters  must  have  moved  apace  in  the 
Church  which  Huxley,  backed  by  history,  describes 
as  "  that  vigorous  and  consistent  enemy  of  the  high- 
est intellectual,  moral,  and  social  life  of  mankind," 
to  permit  the  Roman  Catholic  Professor  of  Physics 
in  the  University  of  Notre  Dame,  America,  to  parley 
as  follows: 

"  Granting  that  future  researches  in  palaeontol- 
ogy, anthropology,  and  biology,  shall  demonstrate 
beyond  doubt  that  man  is  genetically  related  to  the 
inferior  animals,  and  we  have  seen  how  far  scientists 
are  from  such  a  demonstration  (?),  there  will  not  be, 
even  in  such  an  improbable  event,  the  slightest 
ground  for  imagining  that  then,  at  last,  the  con- 
clusions of  science  are  hopelessly  at  variance  with 
the  declarations  of  the  sacred  text,  or  the  authorised 
teachings  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  All  that  would 
logically  follow  from  the  demonstration  of  the  animal 
origin  of  man,  would  be  a  modification  of  the  tradi- 
tional view  regarding  the  origin  of  the  body  of  our 


222  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

first  ancestor.  We  should  be  obliged  to  revise  the 
interpretation  that  has  usually  been  given  to  the 
words  of  Scripture  which  refer  to  the  formation  of 
Adam's  body,  and  read  these  words  in  the  sense 
which  Evolution  demands,  a  sense  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  may  be  attributed  to  the  words  of  the 
inspired  record,  without  either  distorting  the  mean- 
ing of  terms,  or  in  any  way  doing  violence  to  the 
text "  (Evolution  and  Dogma.  By  the  Reverend  J. 
A.  Zahm,  Ph.  D.,  C.  S.  C,  pp.  364,  365). 

Upon  this  suggested  revision  of  writings  which 
are  claimed  as  forming  part  of  a  divine  revelation, 
one  of  the  highest  authorities,  Francisco  Suarez,  thus 
refers,  in  his  Tractatus  de  Opere  sex  Dierum,  to  the 
elastic  interpretation  given  in  his  time  to  the  "  days  " 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis.  "  It  is  not  probable 
that  God,  in  inspiring  Moses  to  write  a  history  of 
the  Creation,  which  was  to  be  believed  by  ordinary 
people,  would  have  made  him  use  language  the  true 
meaning  of  which  it  was  hard  to  discover,  and  still 
harder  to  believe."  Three  centuries  have  passed 
since  these  wise  words  were  penned,  and  the  reproof 
which  they  convey  is  as  much  needed  now  as  then. 

In  near  connection  with  the  question  of  man's 
origin  is  that  of  his  antiquity.  The  existence  of  his 
remains,  rare  as  they  are  everywhere,  in  deposits 
older  than  the  Pleistocene  or  Quaternary  Epoch  is 
not  proven.  This  applies  to  the  remarkable  frag- 
ments found  by  Dr.  Dubois  in  Java,  the  character  of 
which,  in  the  judgment  of  several  palaeontologists, 


MODERN  EVOLUTION, 


223 


indicates  the  nearest  approach  between  man  and  ape 
hitherto  discovered.  But  the  evidence  of  the  physical 
relation  of  these  two  being  conclusive,  the  exact 
place  of  man  in  the  earth's  time-record  is  rendered 
of  subordinate  importance. 

The  theologians  have  come  to  their  last  ditch  in       v»-.a 
contesting  that  the  mental  differences  between  man   ^ 
and  the  lower  animals  are  fundamental,  being  differ-  ^  \ 
ences  of  kind,  and  therefore  that  no  gradual  process  *"    ' 
from  the  mental  faculties  of  the  one  to  those  of  the  w   s 
other  has  taken  place.    This  struggle  against  the  ap-  ^    ^ 
plication  of  the  theory  of  Evolution  to  man's  intel-  ^    ^ 
lectual  and  spiritual  nature  will  be  long  and  stub- 
born.    It  is  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  the  theo-  \.  ^ 
logian  to  show  that  he  has  m  revelation,  and  in  the ,     ' 
world-wide  belief  of  mankind  in  spiritual  existences  ^  -'^ 
without,  and  in  a  spirit  or  soul  within,  evidence  of  the  <  7 
supernatural.     The  evolutionist  has  no  such  corre-  ^  I 
sponding  deep  concern.    When  the  argument  against ' 
him  is  adduced  from  the  Bible,  he  can  only  challenge 
the  ground  on  which  that  book  is  cited  as  divine 
authority,  or  as  an  authority  at  all.     Granting,  for ' .  L 
the  sake  of  argument,  that  a  revelation  has  been 
made,  the  writings  purporting  to   contain  it  must      \ 
comply  with  the  twofold  condition  attaching  to  it,  ;     - 
namely,   that  it  makes   known   matters   which   the  f,    L  c 
human  mind  could  not,  unaided,  have  found  out;!'V    £ 
and  that  it  embodies  those  matters  in  language  as'f'  V^ 
to  the  meaning  of  which  there  can  be  no  doubt  what^  >  \ 
ever.     If  there  be  any  sacred  books  which  comply-'    > 


k 


3 


224  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

with  these  conditions,  they  have  yet  to  be  discov- 
ered. 

When  the  argument  against  the  evolutionist  is 
drawn  from  human  testimony,  he  does  not  dispute 
the  existence  of  the  beHef  in  a  soul  and  in  all  the 
accompanying  apparatus  of  the  supernatural;  but  he 
calls  in  the  anthropologist  to  explain  how  these  arose 
in  the  barbaric  mind. 

Meanwhile,  let  us  summarize  the  evidence  which 
points  to  the  psychical  unity  between  man  and  the 
lower  life-forms.  As  stated  on  p.  187,  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer  traces  the  gradual  evolution  of  conscious- 
ness from  "  the  blurred,  indeterminate  feeling  which 
responds  to  a  single  nerve  pulsation  or  shock." 
There  is  no  trace  of  a  nervous  system  in  the  simplest 
organisms,  but  this  counts  for  little,  because  there 
are  also  no  traces  of  a  mouth,  or  a  stomach,  or  limbs. 
In  these  seemingly  structureless  creatures  every  part 
does  everything.  The  amoeba  eats  and  drinks,  di- 
gests and  excretes,  manifests  *'  irritability,"  that  is, 
responds  to  the  various  stimuli  of  its  surroundings, 
and  multiplies,  without  possessing  special  organs  for 
these  various  functions.  Division  of  labour  arises  at 
a  slightly  higher  stage,  when  rudimentary  organs  ap- 
pear; the  development  of  function  and  organ  going 
on  simultaneously. 

Speaking  broadly,  the  functions  of  living  things 
are  threefold:  they  feed;  they  reproduce;  they  re- 
spond to  their  "  environment,"  and  it  is  this  last- 
named  function — communication  with  surroundings 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  225 


— which  is  the  special  work  of  the  nervous  system. 
It  was  an  old  Greek  maxim  that  "  a  man  may  once 
say  a  thing  as  he  would  have  said  it:  he  cannot  say 
it  twice."  This  is  the  warrant  for  transferring  a  few 
sentences  on  the  origin  of  the  nerves  from  my  Story 
of  Creation.  They  are  but  a  meagre  abstract  of  Mr. 
Spencer's  long,  but  luminous  exposition  of  the  sub- 
ject. 

"  As  every  part  of  an  organism  is  made  up  of 
cells,  and  as  the  functions  govern  the  form  of  the 
cells,  the  origin  of  nerves  must  be  due  to  a  modifica- 
tion in  cell  shape  and  arrangement,  whereby  certain 
tracts  or  fibres  of  communication  between  the  body 
and  its  surroundings  are  established. 

"  But  what  excited  that  modification?  The  all- 
surrounding  medium,  without  which  no  life  had 
been,  which  determined  its  limits,  and  touches  it  at 
every  point  with  its  throbs  and  vibrations.  In  the 
beginnings  of  a  primitive  layer  or  skin  manifested 
by  creatures  a  stage  above  the  lowest,  unlikenesses 
would  arise,  and  certain  parts,  by  reason  of  their 
finer  structure,  would  be  the  more  readily  stimulated 
by,  and  the  more  quickly  responsive  to,  the  ceaseless 
action  of  the  surroundings,  the  result  being  that 
an  extra  sensitiveness  along  the  lines  of  least  re- 
sistance would  be  set  up  in  those  more  delicate 
parts.  These,  developing,  like  all  things  else,  by  use, 
would  become  more  and  more  the  selected  paths  of 
the  impulses,  leading,  as  the  molecular  waves  thrilled 
them,   to    structural    changes    or   modification    into 


226  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

nerve-cells,  and  nerve-fibres,  of  increasing  complex- 
ity as  we  ascend  the  scale  of  life.  The  entire  nervous 
system,  with  its  connections;  the  brain  and  all  the 
subtle  mechanism  with  which  it  controls  the  body; 
the  organs  of  the  senses  alike  begin  as  sacs  formed 
by  infoldings  of  the  primitive  outer  skin." 

Biologists  are  agreed  that  a  certain  stage  in  the 
organization  of  the  nervous  system — ^the  germs  of 
which,  we  saw,  are  visible  in  the  quivering  of  an 
amoeba,  and  probably  in  plants  as  well  as  animals 
— must  be  reached  before  consciousness  is  manifest. 
Obscurity  still  hangs  round  the  stage  at  which  mere 
irritability  passes  into  sensibility,  but  so  long  as  the 
continuity  of  development  is  clear,  the  gradations 
are  of  lesser  importance.  And,  for  the  present  pur- 
pose, there  is  no  need  to  descend  far  in  the  life-scale; 
if  the  psychical  connection  between  man  and  the 
mammals  immediately  beneath  him  is  proven,  the 
connection  of  the  mammals  with  the  lowest  inver- 
tebrate may  be  assumed  as  also  established.  Speak- 
ing only  of  vertebrates,  the  brain  being,  whether  in 
fish  or  man,  the  organ  of  mental  phenomena,  how 
far  does  its  structure  support  or  destroy  the  theory 
of  mental  continuity?  In  Man's  Place  in  Nature, 
and  its  invaluable  supplement,  the  second  part  of 
the  monograph  on  Hume,  this  subject  is  expounded 
by  Huxley  with  his  usual  clearness.  In  the  older 
book  he  traces  the  gradual  modification  of  brain  in 
the  series  of  backboned  animals.  He  points  out  that 
the  brain  of  a  fish  is  very  small  compared  with  the 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  22/ 

Spinal  cord  into  which  it  is  continued,  that  in  reptiles 
the  mass  of  brain,  relatively  to  the  spinal  cord,  is 
larger,  and  still  larger  in  birds,  until  among  the  low- 
est mammals,  as  the  opossums  and  kangaroos,  the 
brain  is  so  increased  in  proportion  as  to  be  extremely 
different  from  that  of  fish,  bird,  or  reptile.  Between 
these  marsupials  and  the  highest  or  placental  mam- 
mals, there  occurs  "  the  greatest  leap  anywhere  made 
by  Nature  in  her  brain  work."  Then  follows  this 
important  statement  in  favour  of  continuity. 

"  As  if  to  demonstrate,  by  a  striking  example,  the 
impossibility  of  erecting  any  cerebral  barrier  between 
man  and  the  apes.  Nature  has  provided  us,  in  the 
latter  animals,  with  an  almost  complete  series  of 
gradations  from  brains  little  higher  than  that  of  a 
Rodent  to  brains  little  lower  than  that  of  Man." 
After  giving  technical  descriptions  in  proof  of  this, 
and  laying  special  stress  on  the  presence  of  the 
structure  known  as  the  "  hippocampus  minor "  in 
the  brain  of  man  as  well  as  of  the  ape — in  the  de- 
nial of  which  Owen  cut  such  a  sorry  figure,  Huxley 
adds: 

"  So  far  as  cerebral  structure  goes,  therefore,  it  is 
clear  that  Man  differs  less  from  the  Chimpanzee  or 
the  Orang  than  these  do  even  from  the  Monkeys, 
and  that  the  difference  between  the  brains  of  the 
Chimpanzee  and  of  Man  is  almost  insignificant  when 
compared  with  that  between  the  Chimpanzee  brain 
and  that  of  a  Lemur.  .  .  .  Thus,  whatever  system  of 
organs  be  studied,  the  comparison  of  their  modifica- 


228  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

tions  in  the  ape  series  leads  to  one  and  the  same 
result, — that  the  structural  differences  which  separate 
Man  from  the  Gorilla  and  the  Chimpanzee  are  not  so 
great  as  those  which  separate  the  Gorilla  from  the 
lower  apes.  But  in  enunciating  this  important  truth 
I  must  guard  myself  against  a  form  of  misunder- 
standing which  is  very  prevalent  .  .  .  that  the  struc- 
tural differences  between  man  and  even  the  highest 
apes  are  small  and  insignificant.  Let  me  then  dis- 
tinctly assert,  on  the  contrary,  that  they  are  great 
and  significant;  that  every  bone  of  a  Gorilla  bears 
marks  by  which  it  might  be  distinguished  from  the 
corresponding  bone  of  a  Man;  and  that,  in  the  pres- 
ent creation,  at  any  rate,  no  intermediate  link  bridges 
over  the  gap  between  Homo  and  Troglodytes.  It 
would  be  no  less  wrong  than  absurd  to  deny  the  ex- 
istence of  this  chasm;  but  it  is  at  least  equally  wrong 
and  absurd  to  exaggerate  its  magnitude,  and,  rest- 
ing on  the  admitted  fact  of  its  existence,  to  refuse  to 
inquire  whether  it  is  wide  or  narrow.  Remember,  if 
you  will,  that  there  is  no  existing  link  between  Man 
and  the  Gorilla,  but  do  not  forget  that  there  is  a  no 
less  sharp  line  of  demarcation,  a  no  less  complete 
absence  of  any  traditional  form,  between  the  Gorilla 
and  the  Orang,  or  the  Orang  and  the  Gibbon." 

The  brains  of  man  and  ape  being  fundamentally 
the  same  in  structure,  it  follows  that  the  functions 
which  they  perform  are  fundamentally  the  same. 
The  large  array  of  facts  mustered  by  a  series  of 
careful  observers  prove  how  futile  is  the  argument 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


229 


which,  in  his  pride  of  birth,  man  advances  against 
psychical  continuity.  Vain  is  the  search  after 
boundary  Hues  between  reflex  action  and  instinct, 
and  between  instinct  and  reason.  Barriers  there  are 
between  man  and  brute,  for  articulate  speech  and 
the  consequent  power  to  transmit  experiences  has 
set  up  these,  and  they  remain  impassable.  "  The 
potentialities  of  language,  as  the  vocal  symbol  of 
thought,  lay  in  the  faculty  of  modulating  and  articu- 
lating the  voice.  The  potentialities  of  writing,  as 
the  visual  symbol  of  thought,  lay  in  the  hand  that 
could  draw,  and  in  the  mimetic  tendency  which 
we  know  was  gratified  by  drawing  as  far  back  as 
the  days  of  Quaternary  man  "  (Huxley's  Essays  on 
Controverted  Questions,  p.  47).  But  these  specially 
human  characteristics  are  no  sufficing  warrant  for 
denying  that  the  sensations,  emotions,  thoughts,  and 
volitions  of  man  vary  in  kind  from  those  of  the 
lower  creation.  "  The  essential  resemblances  in  all 
points  of  structure  and  function,  so  far  as  they  can 
be  studied,  between  the  nervous  system  of  man  and 
that  of  the  dog,  leave  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the 
processes  which  go  on  in  the  one  are  just  like  those 
which  take  place  in  the  other.  In  the  dog,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  nervous  matter  which  lies 
between  the  retina  and  the  muscles  undergoes  a 
series  of  changes,  precisely  analogous  to  those  which, 
in  the  man,  give  rise  to  sensation,  a  train  of  thought, 
and  volition."  This  passage  occurs  in  Huxley's 
Reply  to  Mr.  Darwin's  Critics,  which  appeared  in 


230 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


the  Contemporary  Review,  1871,  and  it  may  be  sup- 
plemented by  a  quotation  from  the  chapter  on  The 
Mental  Phenomena  of  Animals  in  his  Hume.  "  It 
seems  hard  to  assign  any  good  reason  for  denying 
to  the  higher  animals  any  mental  state  or  process 
in  which  the  employment  of  the  vocal  or  visual 
symbols  of  which  language  is  composed  is  not  in- 
volved; and  comparative  psychology  confirms  the 
position  in  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  animal  world 
assigned  to  man  by  comparative  anatomy.  As  com- 
parative anatomy  is  easily  able  to  show  that,  physi- 
'cally,  man  is  but  the  last  term  of  a  long  series  of 
forms,  which  lead,  by  slow  gradations,  from  the  high- 
est mammal  to  the  almost  formless  speck  of  living 
protoplasm,  which  lies  on  the  shadowy  boundary 
between  animal  and  vegetable  life;  so,  comparative 
psychology,  though  but  a  young  science,  and  far 
short  of  her  elder  sister's  growth,  points  to  the  same 
conclusion." 

Within  recent  years  the  psychologists  are  doing 
remarkable  work  in  attacking  the  problem  of  the 
mechanics  of  mental  operations,  and  already  in  Eu- 
rope and  America  some  thirty  laboratories  have  been 
started  for  experimental  work.  The  subject  is  some- 
what abstruse  for  detailed  reference  here,  and  it  must 
suffice  to  say  that  the  psychologist,  beginning  with 
observations  upon  himself,  measuring,  for  example, 
"  the  degree  of  sensibility  of  his  own  eye  to  luminous 
irritations,  or  of  his  own  skin  to  pricking,  passes  on 
to  like  inquiry  into  the  numerical  relations  between 


MODERN  EVOLUTION, 


231 


the  energy  of  the  stimuli  of  Hght,  sound,  and  so  forth, 
and  the  energy  of  the  sensations  which  they  arouse 
in  the  nerve-channels."  An  excellent  summary,  with 
references  to  the  newest  authorities  on  the  subject, 
is  given  by  Prince  Kropotkin  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  of  August,  1896. 

All  this,  to  the  superficial  onlooker,  seems  rank 
materialism.  But  we  cannot  think  without  a  brain 
any  more  than  we  can  see  without  eyes,  and  any 
inquiry  into  the  operation  of  the  organ  of  thought 
must  run  on  the  same  lines  as  inquiry  into  the 
operations  of  any  other  organ  of  the  body.  And 
the  inquiry  leaves  us  at  the  point  whence  we  began 
in  so  far  as  any  light  is  thrown  on  the  connection 
between  the  molecular  vibrations  in  nerve-tissue  and 
the  mental  processes  of  which  they  are  the  indis- 
pensable accompaniment.  Changes  take  place  in 
some  of  the  thousands  of  millions  of  brain-cells  in 
every  thought  that  we  think,  and  in  every  emotion 
that  we  feel,  but  the  nexus  remains  an  impenetrable 
mystery.  Nevertheless,  if  we  may  not  say  that  the 
brain  secretes  thought  as  we  say  that  the  liver  se- 
cretes bile,  we  may  also  not  say  that  the  mind  is 
detachable  from  the  nervous  system,  and  that  it  is 
an  entity  independent  of  it.  Were  it  this,  not  only 
would  it  stand  outside  the  ordinary  conditions  of 
development,  but  it  would  also  maintain  the  equi- 
librium which  a  dose  of  narcotics  or  of  alcohol,  or 
which  starvation  and  gorging  alike  rapidly  upset.' 

In  his  posthumous  essay  On  the  Immortality  of 


232 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


the  Soul,  Hume  says:  "Matter  and  spirit  are  at 
bottom  equally  unknown,  and  we  cannot  determine 
what  qualities  inhere  in  the  one  or  in  the  other." 
That  is  the  conclusion  to  which  the  wisest  come. 
And  in  the  ultimate  correlation  of  the  physical  and 
psychical  lies  the  hope  of  arrival  at  that  terminus  of 
unity  which  was  the  dream  of  the  ancient  Greeks, 
and  to  which  all  inquiry  makes  approach.  How,  in 
these  matters,  philosophy  is  at  one,  is  again  seen  in 
Huxley's  admission  that  "  in  respect  of  the  great 
problems  of  philosophy,  the  post-Darwinian  genera- 
tion is,  in  one  sense,  exactly  where  the  prge-Dar- 
winian  generations  were.  They  remain  insoluble. 
But  the  present  generation  has  the  advantage  of 
being  better  provided  with  the  means  of  freeing  itself 
from  the  tyranny  of  certain  sham  solutions." 

Science  explains,  and,  in  explaining,  dissipates 
the  pseudo-mysteries  by  which  man,  in  his  myth- 
making  stage,  when  conception  of  the  order  of  the 
universe  was  yet  unborn,  accounted  for  everything. 
But  she  may  borrow  the  Apostle's  words,  "  Behold! 
I  show  you  a  mystery,"  and  give  to  them  a  pro- 
founder  meaning  as  she  confesses  that  the  origin  and 
ultimate  destiny  of  matter  and  motion;  the  causes 
which  determine  the  behaviour  of  atoms,  whether 
they  are  arranged  in  the  lovely  and  varying  forms 
which  mark  their  crystals,  or  whether  they  are  quiv- 
ering with  the  life  which  is  common  to  the  amoeba 
and  the  man;  the  conversion  of  the  inorganic  into 
the  organic  by  the  green  plant,  and  the  relation  be- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION,  233 

tween  nerve-changes  and  consciousness;  are  all  im- 
penetrable mysteries. 

In  his  speech  on  the  commemoration  of  the  jubi- 
lee of  his  Professorship  in  the  University  of  Glasgow 
last  year,  Lord  Kelvin  said,  "  I  know  no  more  of 
electric  and  magnetic  force,  or  of  the  relation  be- 
tween ether,  electricity,  and  ponderable  matter,  or  of 
chemical  affinity  than  I  knew  and  tried  to  teach  my 
students  of  natural  philosophy  fifty  years  ago  in  my 
first  session  as  professor." 

This  recognition  of  limitations  will  content  those 

who  seek  not  "  after  a  sign."    For  others,  that  search 

will  continue  to  have  encouragement  not  only  from 

the  theologian,  but  from  the  pseudo-scientific  who 

have  travelled  some  distance  with  the  Pioneers  of 

Evolution,  but  who  refuse  to  follow  them  further. 

In  each  of  these  there  is  present  the  "  theological 

bias  "  whose  varied  forms  are  skilfully  analyzed  by 

Mr.  Spencer  in  his  chapter  under  that  heading  in 

the  Study  of  Sociology.    This  explains  the  attitude 

of  various  groups  which  are  severally  represented 

by- Mr.  St.  George  Mivart,  and  the  late  Dr.  W.  B. 

Carpenter;  by  Professor  Sir  Geo.  G.  Stokes,  and  Mr. 

Alfred  Russel  Wallace.    The  first-named  is  a  Roman 

Catholic;  the  second  was  a  Unitarian;  the  third  is 

an  orthodox  Churchman,  and  the  fourth,  as  already 

seen,  is  a  Spiritualist.    In  his  Genesis  of  Species,  Mr. 

Mivart  contends  that  *'  man's  body  was  evolved  from 

pre-existing  material  (symbolised  by  the  term  '  dust 

of  the  earth '),  and  was  therefore  only  derivatively 
16 


234  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

created,  i.  e.,  by  the  operation  of  secondary  laws," 
but  that  "  his  soul,  on  the  other  hand,  was  created  in 
quite  a  different  way  ...  by  the  direct  action  of 
the  Almighty  (symbolised  by  the  term  breathing)," 
p.  325.  In  his  Mental  Physiology,  Dr.  Carpenter 
postulates  an  Ego  or  Will  which  presides  over,  with- 
out sharing  in,  the  causally  determined  action  of  the 
other  mental  functions  and  their  correlated  bodily 
processes;  "an  entity  which  does  not  depend  for  its 
existence  on  any  play  of  physical  or  vital  forces,  but 
which  makes  these  forces  subservient  to  its  deter- 
minations "  (p.  2f).  Professor  Mivart  actually  cites 
St.  Augustine  and  Cardinal  Newman  as  authorities 
in  support  of  his  theory  of  the  special  creation  of  the 
soul.  He  might  with  equal  effect  subpoena  Dr. 
Joseph  Parker  or  General  Booth  as  authorities.  Dr. 
Carpenter  argued  as  became  a  good  Unitarian.  In 
his  Gifford  Lectures  on  Natural  Theology,  Professor 
Stokes  asserts,  drawing  "  on  sources  of  information 
which  lie  beyond  man's  natural  powers,"  in  other 
words,  appealing  to  the  Bible,  that  God  made  man 
immortal  and  upright,  and  endowed  him  with  free- 
dom of  the  will.  As,  without  the  exercise  of  this, 
man  would  have  been  as  a  mere  automaton,  he  was 
exposed  to  the  temptation  of  the  devil,  and  fell. 
Thereby  he  became  "  subject  to  death  like  the  lower 
animals,"  and  by  the  "  natural  effect  of  heredity," 
transmitted  the  taint  of  sin  to  his  offspring.  The 
eternal  life  thus  forfeited  was  restored  by  the  volun- 
tary sacrifice  of  Christ,  but  can  be  secured  only  to 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


235 


those  who  have  faith  in  him.  This  doctrine,  which 
is  no  novel  one,  is  known  as  ''  conditional  immor- 
taHty."  Professor  Stokes  attaches  "  no  value  to  the 
belief  in  a  future  life  by  metaphysical  arguments 
founded  on  the  supposed  nature  of  the  soul  itself," 
and  he  admits  that  the  purely  psychic  theory  which 
would  discard  the  body  altogether  in  regard  to  the 
process  of  thought  is  beset  by  very  great  difhculties. 
So  he  once  more  has  recourse  to  "  sources  of  in- 
formation which  lie  beyond  man's  natural  powers." 
Following  up  certain  distinctions  between  "  soul  " 
and  "  spirit "  drawn  by  the  Apostle  Paul  in  his  tri- 
partite division  of  man,  Professor  Stokes,  somewhat 
in  keeping  with  Dr.  Carpenter,  assumes  an  "  Ego, 
which,  on  the  one  hand,  is  not  to  be  identified  with 
thought,  which  may  exist  while  thought  is  in  abey- 
ance, and  which  may,  with  the  future  body  of  which 
the  Christian  religion  speaks,  be  the  medium  of  con- 
tinuity of  thought.  .  .  .  What  the  nature  of  this  body 
might  be  we  do  not  know;  but  we  are  pretty  dis- 
tinctly informed  that  it  would  be  something  very 
different  from  that  of  our  present  body,  very  different 
in  its  properties  and  functions,  and  yet  no  less  our 
own  than  our  present  body."  "  Words,  words, 
words,"  as  Hamlet  says. 

Reference  has  been  made  in  some  fulness  to  Mr. 
Wallace's  limitations  of  the  theory  of  natural  selec- 
tion in  the  case  of  man's  mental  faculties.  We  must 
now  pursue  this  somewhat  in  detail,  reminding  the 
reader  of  Mr.  Wallace's  admission  that,  "  provision- 


236  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

ally,  the  laws  of  variation  and  natural  selection  .  .  . 
may  have  brought  about,  first,  that  perfection  of 
bodily  structure  in  which  man  is  so  far  above  all 
other  animals,  and,  in  co-ordination  with  it,  the 
larger  and  more  developed  brain  by  means  of  which 
he  has  been  able  to  subject  the  whole  animal  and 
vegetable  kingdoms  to  his  service."  But,  although 
Mr.  Wallace  rejects  the  theory  of  man's  special  cre- 
ation as  "  being  entirely  unsupported  by  facts,  as 
well  as  in  the  highest  degree  improbable,"  he  con- 
tends that  it  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  "  his 
mental  nature,  even  though  developed  pari  passu 
with  his  physical  structure,  has  been  developed  by 
the  same  agencies."  Then,  by  the  introduction  of  a 
physical  analogy  which  is  no  analogy  at  all,  he  sug- 
gests that  the  agent  by  which  man  was  upraised 
into  a  kingdom  apart  bears  like  relation  to  natural 
selection  as  the  glacial  epoch  bears  to  the  ordinary 
agents  of  denudation  and  other  changes  in  producing 
new  effects  which,  though  continuous  with  preceding 
effects,  were  not  due  to  the  same  causes. 

Applying  this  "  argument "  (drawn  from  natural 
causes),  as  Mr.  Wallace  names  it,  "  to  the  case  of 
man's  intellectual  and  moral  nature,"  he  contends 
that  such  special  faculties  as  the  mathematical, 
musical,  and  artistic  (is  this  faculty  to  be  denied  the 
nest-decorating  bower  bird?),  and  the  high  moral 
qualities  which  have  given  the  martyr  his  constancy, 
the  patriot  his  devotion,  and  the  philanthropist  his 
unselfishness,  are  due  to  a  "  spiritual  essence  or  na- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION, 


237 


ture,  superadded  to  the  animal  nature  of  man."  We 
are  not  told  at  what  stage  in  man's  development  this 
was  inserted;  whether,  once  and  for  all,  in  "primi- 
tive "  man,  with  potentiality  of  transmission  through 
Palaeolithic  folk  to  all  succeeding  generations;  or 
whether  there  is  special  infusion  of  a  "  spiritual  es- 
sence "  into  every  human  being  at  birth. 

Any  perplexity  that  might  arise  at  the  line  thus 
taken  by  Mr.  Wallace  vanishes  before  the  fact,  al- 
ready enlarged  upon,  that  the  author  of  the  Malay 
Archipelago  and  Island  Life  has  written  a  book  on 
Miracles  and  Modern  Spiritualism  in  defence  of  both. 
The  explanation  lies  in  that  duality  of  mind  which, 
in  one  compartment,  ranks  Mr.  Wallace  foremost 
among  naturalists,  and,  in  the  other  compartment, 
places  him  among  the  most  credulous  of  Spiritualists. 

Despite  this,  Mr.  Wallace  has  claims  to  a  respect- 
ful hearing  and  to  serious  reply.  Fortunately,  he 
would  appear  to  furnish  the  refutation  to  his  own 
argument  in  the  following  paragraph  from  his  de- 
lightful Contributions  to  the  Theory  of  Natural  Se- 
lection : 

"  From  the  time  when  the  social  and  sympathetic 
feelings  came  into  operation  and  the  intellectual  and 
moral  faculties  became  fairly  developed,  man  would 
cease  to  be  influenced  by  natural  selection  in  his 
physical  form  and  structure.  As  an  animal  he  would 
remain  almost  stationary,  the  changes  in  the  sur- 
rounding universe  ceasing  to  produce  in  him  that 
powerful  modifying  efifect  which  they  exercise  on 


238  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

other  parts  of  the  organic  world.  But,  from  the 
moment  that  the  form  of  his  body  became  stationary, 
his  mind  would  become  subject  to  those  very  influ- 
ences from  which  his  body  had  escaped;  every  slight 
variation  in  his  mental  and  moral  nature  which 
should  enable  him  better  to  guard  against  adverse 
circumstances  and  combine  for  mutual  comfort  and 
protection  would  be  preserved  and  accumulated;  the 
better  and  higher  specimens  of  our  race  would  there- 
fore increase  and  spread,  the  lower  and  more  brutal 
would  give  way  and  successively  die  out,  and  that 
rapid  advancement  of  mental  organisation  would 
occur  which  has  raised  the  very  lowest  races  of  man 
so  far  above  the  brutes  (although  differing  so  little 
from  some  of  them  in  physical  structure),  and,  in  con- 
junction with  scarcely  perceptible  modifications  of 
form,  has  developed  the  wonderful  intellect  of  the 
European    races "    (pp.    316,    317,    Second    Edition, 

1871). 

This  argument  has  suggestive  illustration  in  the 
fifth  chapter  of  the  Origin  of  Species.  Mr.  Darwin 
there  refers  to  a  remark  to  the  following  effect  made 
by  Mr.  Waterhouse:  "  A  part  developed  in  any  species' 
in  an  extraordinary  degree  or  manner  in  comparison 
with  the  same  part  in  allied  species  tends  to  be  highly 
variable."  This  applies  only  where  there  is  unusual 
development.  "  Thus,  the  wing  of  a  bat  is  a  most 
abnormal  structure  in  the  class  of  mammals;  but 
the  rule  would  not  apply  here,  because  the  whole 
group  of  bats  possesses  wings;  it  would  apply  only 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


239 


if  some  one  species  had  wings  developed  in  a  re- 
markable manner  in  comparison  with  the  other  spe- 
cies of  the  same  genius."  And  when  this  exceptional 
development  of  any  part  or  organ  occurs,  we  may 
conclude  that  the  modification  has  arisen  since  the 
period  when  the  several  species  branched  off  from 
the  common  progenitor  of  the  genus ;  and  this  period 
will  seldom  be  very  remote,  as  species  rarely  endure 
for  more  than  one  geological  period. 

How  completely  this  applies  to  man,  the  latest 
product  of  organic  evolution.  The  brain  is  that  part 
or  organ  in  him  which  has  been  developed  "  in  an 
extraordinary  degree,  in  comparison  with  the  same 
part "  in  other  Primates,  and  which  has  become 
highly  variable.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  favour- 
ing causes  which  secured  his  immediate  progenitors 
such  modification  of  brain  as  advanced  him  in  intel- 
ligence over  "  allied  species,"  the  fact  abides  that 
in  this  lies  the  explanation  of  their  after-history;  the 
arrest  of  the  one,  the  unlimited  progress  of  the 
other.  Increasing  intelligence  at  work  through  vast 
periods  of  time  originated  and  developed  those  social 
conditions  which  alone  made  possible  that  progress 
which,  in  its  most  advanced  degree,  but  a  small 
proportion  of  the  race  has  reached.  For  in  this  ques- 
tion of  mental  differences  the  contrast  is  not  be- 
tween man  and  ape,  but  between  man  savage  and 
civilized;  between  the  incapacity  of  the  one  to  count 
beyond  his  fingers,  and  the  capacity  of  the  other  to 
calculate  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  or  a  transit  of  Venus. 


240 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 


It  would  therefore  seem  that  Mr.  Wallace  should 
introduce  his  "  spiritual  essence,  or  nature,"  in  the 
intermediate,  and  not  in  the  initial  stage. 

As  answer  to  Mr.  Wallace's  argument  that  in 
their  large  and  well-developed  brains,  savages  ''  pos- 
sess an  organ  quite  disproportioned  to  their  require- 
ments," Huxley  cites  Wallace's  own  remarks  in  his 
paper  on  Instinct  in  Man  and  Animals  as  to  the 
considerable  demands  made  by  the  needs  of  the  lower 
races  on  their  observing  faculties  which  call  into 
play  no  mean  exercise  of  brain  function. 

"  Add  to  this,"  Huxley  says,  "  the  knowledge 
which  a  savage  is  obliged  to  gain  of  the  properties 
of  plants,  of  the  characters  and  habits  of  animals, 
and  of  the  minute  indications  by  which  their  course 
is  discoverable;  consider  that  even  an  Australian 
can  make  excellent  baskets  and  nets,  and  neatly 
fitted  and  beautifully  balanced  spears;  that  he  learns 
to  use  these  so  as  to  be  able  to  transfix  a  quartern 
loaf  at  sixty  yards;  and  that  very  often,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  American  Indians,  the  language  of  a 
savage  exhibits  complexities  which  a  well-trained 
European  finds  it  difficult  to  master;  consider  that 
every  time  a  savage  tracks  his  game,  he  employs  a 
minuteness  of  observation,  and  an  accuracy  of  induc- 
tive and  deductive  reasoning  which,  applied  to  other 
matters,  would  assure  some  reputation,  and  I  think 
one  need  ask  no  further  why  he  possesses  such  a 
fair  supply  of  brains.".  .  .  But  Mr.  Wallace's  objec- 
tion "  applies  quite  as  strongly  to  the  lower  animals. 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


241 


Surely  a  wolf  must  have  too  much  brain,  or  else 
how  is  it  that  a  dog,  with  only  the  same  quantity 
and  form  of  brain,  is  able  to  develop  such  singular 
intelligence?  The  wolf  stands  to  the  dog  in  the 
same  relation  as  the  savage  to  the  man;  and  there- 
fore, if  Mr.  Wallace's  doctrine  holds  good,  a  higher 
power  must  have  superintended  the  breeding  up  of 
wolves  from  some  inferior  stock,  in  order  to  prepare 
them  to  become  dogs "   (Critiques  and  Addresses, 

P-  293)- 

After  all  is  said,  perhaps  the  effective  refutation 
of  the  belief  in  a  spiritual  entity  superadded  in  man 
is  found  in  the  explanation  of  the  origin  of  that  belief 
which  anthropology  supplies. 

The  theory  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  the  belief 
in  souls  and  spiritual  beings  generally,  and  in  a 
future  life,  which  has  been  put  into  coherent  form 
by  Spencer  and  Tylor,  is  based  upon  an  enormous 
mass  of  evidence  gathered  by  travellers  among  ex- 
isting barbaric  peoples;  evidence  agreeing  in  char- 
acter with  that  which  results  from  investigations 
into  beliefs  of  past  races  in  varying  stages  of  culture. 
Only  brief  reference  to  it  here  is  necessary,  but  the 
merest  outline  suffices  to  show  from  what  obvious 
phenomena  the  conception  of  a  soul  was  derived,  a 
conception  of  which  all  subsequent  forms  are  but 
elaborated  copies.  As  in  other  matters,  crude  analo- 
gies have  guided  the  barbaric  mind  in  its  ideas  about 
spirits  and  their  behaviour.  A  man  falls  asleep  and 
dreams  certain  things;  on  waking,  he  believes  that 


242  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

these  things  actually  happened;  and  he  therefore 
concludes  that  the  dead  who  came  to  him  or  to 
whom  he  went  in  his  dreams,  are  alive;  that  the 
friend  or  foe  whom  he  knows  to  be  far  away,  but 
with  whom  he  feasted  or  fought  in  dreamland,  came 
to  him.  He  sees  another  man  fall  into  a  swoon  or 
trance  that  may  lay  him  seemingly  lifeless  for  hours 
or  even  days;  he  himself  may  be  attacked  by  de- 
ranging fevers  and  see  visions  stranger  than  those 
which  a  healthy  person  sees;  shadows  of  himself  and 
of  objects,  both  living  and  not  living,  follow  or  pre- 
cede him  and  lengthen  or  shorten  in  the  withdrawing 
or  advancing  light;  the  still  water  throws  back  im- 
ages of  himself;  the  hillsides  resound  with  mocking 
echoes  of  his  words  and  of  sounds  around  him;  and 
it  is  these  and  allied  phenomena  which  have  given 
rise  to  the  notion  of  "  another  self,"  to  use  Mr.  Spen- 
cer's convenient  term,  or  of  a  number  of  selves  that 
are  sometimes  outside  the  man  and  sometimes  inside 
him,  as  to  which  the  barbaric  mind  is  never  sure. 
Outside  him,  however,  when  the  man  is  sleeping, 
so  that  he  must  not  be  awakened,  lest  this  "  other 
self  "  be  hindered  from  returning;  or  when  he  is  sick, 
or  in.  the  toils  of  the  medicine-man,  who  may  hold 
the  "  other  self "  in  his  power,  as  in  the  curious  soul- 
trap  of  the  Polynesians — a  series  of  cocoa-nut  rings 
— in  which  the  sorcerer  makes  believe  to  catch  and 
detain  the  soul  of  an  ofifender  or  sick  person.  When 
Dr.  Catat  and  his  companions,  MM.  Maistre  and 
Foucart  were  exploring  the  "  Bara  "  country  on  the 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  243 

west  coast  of  Madagascar  the  people  suddenly  be- 
came hostile.  On  the  previous  day  the  travellers, 
not  without  difficulty,  had  photographed  the  royal 
family,  and  now  found  themselves  accused  of  taking 
the  souls  of  the  natives  with  the  object  of  selling 
them  when  they  returned  to  France.  Denial  was 
of  no  avail;  following  the  custom  of  the  Malagasays, 
they  were  compelled  to  catch  the  souls,  which  were 
then  put  into  a  casket,  and  ordered  by  Dr.  Catat 
to  return  to  their  respective  owners  (Times,  24th 
March,  1891). 

Although  the  difference  presented  by  such  phe- 
nomena and  by  death  is  that  it  is  abiding,  while  they 
are  temporary,  to  the  barbaric  mind  the  difference  is 
in  degree,  and  not  in  kind.  True,  the  "  other  self " 
has  left  the  body,  and  will  never  return  to  it;  but  it 
exists,  for  it  appears  in  dreams  and  hallucinations, 
and  therefore  is  believed  to  revisit  its  ancient  haunts, 
as  well  as  to  tarry  often  near  the  exposed  or  buried 
body.  The  nebulous  theories  which  identified  the 
soul  with  breath,  and  shadow,  and  reflection,  slowly 
condensed  into  theories  of  semi-substantiality  still 
charged  with  ethereal  conceptions,  resulting  in  the 
curious  amalgam  which,  in  the  minds  of  cultivated 
persons,  whenever  they  strive  to  envisage  the  idea, 
represents  the  disembodied  soul. 

Therefore,  in  vain  may  we  seek  for  points  of  dif- 
ference in  our  comparison  of  primitive  ideas  of  the 
origin  and  nature  of  the  soul  with  the  later  ideas. 
The  copious  literature  to  which  these  have  given 


244  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

birth  is  represented  in  the  bibHography  appended  to 
Mr.  Alger's  work  on  Theories  of  a  Future  Life,  by 
4977  books,  exclusive  of  many  pubHshed  since  his 
list  was  compiled.  Save  in  refinement  of  detail  such 
as  a  higher  culture  secures,  what  is  there  to  choose 
between  the  four  souls  of  the  Hidatsa  Indians,  the 
two  souls  of  the  Gold  Coast  natives,  and  the  tripartite 
division  of  man  by  Rabbis,  Platonists,  and  Paulinists, 
which  are  but  the  savage  other-self  "writ  large"? 
Their  common  source  is  in  man's  general  animistic 
interpretation  of  Nature,  which  is  a  vera  causa,  super- 
seding the  need  for  the  assumptions  of  which  Mr. 
Wallace's  is  a  type.  As  an  excellent  illustration  of 
what  is  meant  by  animism,  we  may  cite  what  Mr. 
Everard  im  Thurn  has  to  say  about  the  Indians  of 
Guiana,  who  are,  presumably,  a  good  many  steps 
removed  from  so-called  "  primitive  "  man.  ''  The 
Indian  does  not  see  any  sharp  line  of  distinction 
such  as  we  see  between  man  and  other  animals,  be- 
tween one  kind  of  animal  and  another,  or  between 
animals — man  included — and  inanimate  objects.  On 
the  contrary,  to  the  Indian  all  objects,  animate  and 
inanimate,  seem  exactly  of  the  same  nature,  except 
that  they  differ  in  the  accident  of  bodily  form.  Every 
object  in  the  whole  world  is  a  being,  consisting  of 
a  body  and  spirit,  and  differs  from  every  other  ob- 
ject in  no  respect  except  that  of  bodily  form,  and  in 
the  greater  or  lesser  degree  of  brute  power  and  brute 
cunning  consequent  on  the  difference  of  bodily  form 
and  bodily  habits.     Our  next  step,  therefore,  is  to 


MODERN  EVOLUTION,  245 

note  that  animals,  other  than  men,  and  even  inani- 
mate objects,  have  spirits  which  differ  not  at  all  in 
kind  from  those  of  men." 

The  importance  of  the  evidence  gathered  by  an- 
thropology in  support  of  man's  inclusion  in  the  gen- 
eral theory  of  evolution  is  ever  becoming  more  mani- 
fest. For  it  has  brought  witness  to  continuity  in  or- 
ganic development  at  the  point  where  a  break  has 
been  assumed,  and  driven  home  the  fact  that  if 
Evolution  operates  anywhere,  it  operates  everywhere. 
And  operates,  too,  in  such  a  way  that  every  part  co- 
operates in  the  discharge  of  a  universal  process. 
Hence  it  meets  the  divisions  which  mark  opposition 
to  it  by  the  transcendent  power  of  unity. 

Until  the  past  half-century,  man  excepted  him- 
self, save  in  crude  and  superficial  fashion,  from  that 
investigation  which,  for  long  periods,  he  has  made 
into  the  earth  beneath  him  and  the  heavens  above 
him.  This  tardy  inquiry  into  the  history  of  his  own 
kind,  and  its  place  in  the  order  and  succession  of  life, 
as  well  as  its  relation  to  the  lower  animals,  between 
whom  and  itself,  as  has  been  shown,  the  barbaric 
mind  sees  much  in  common,  is  due,  so  far  as  Chris- 
tendom is  concerned  (and  the  like  cause  applies, 
mutatis  mutandis,  in  non-Christian  civilized  communi- 
ties), to  the  subjection  of  the  intellect  to  pre-con- 
ceived  theories  based  on  the  authority  accorded  to 
ancient  legends  about  man.  These  legends,  invested 
with  the  sanctity  with  which  time  endows  the  past, 
finally  became  integral  parts  of  sacred  literatures,  to 


246  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

question  which  was  as  superfluous  as  it  was  impious. 
Thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  only  being  com- 
petent to  inquire  into  his  own  antecedents  has  looked 
at  his  htstory  through  the  distorting  prism  of  a 
mythopoeic  past! 

Perhaps,  in  the  long  run,  the  gain  has  exceeded 
the  loss.  For,  in  the  precedence  of  study  of  other 
sciences  more  remote  from  man's  "  business  and 
bosom,"  there  has  been  rendered  possible  a  more 
dispassionate  treatment  of  matters  charged  with  pro- 
founder  issues.  Since  the  Church,  however  she  may 
conveniently  ignore  the  fact  as  concession  after  con- 
cession is  wrung  from  her,  has  never  slackened  in 
jealousy  of  the  advance  of  secular  knowledge,  it  was 
well  for  human  progress  that  those  subjects  of  in- 
quiry which  affected  orthodox  views  only  indirectly 
were  first  prosecuted.  The  brilliant  discoveries  in 
astronomy,  to  which  the  Copernican  theory  gave  im- 
petus, although  they  displaced  the  earth  from  its 
assumed  supremacy  among  the  bodies  in  space,  did 
not  apparently  affect  the  doctrine  of  the  supremacy 
of  man  as  the  centre  of  Divine  intervention,  as  the 
creature  for  whom  the  great  scheme  of  redemption 
had  been  formulated  "  in  the  counsels  of  the  Trinity," 
and  the  tragedy  of  the  self-sacrifice  of  God  the  Son 
enacted  on  earth.  The  surrender  or  negation  of  any 
fundamental  dogma  of  Christian  theology  was  not 
involved  in  the  abandonment  of  the  statement  in 
the  Bible  as  to  the  dominant  position  of  the  earth 
in  relation  to  the  sun  and  other  self-luminous  stars. 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


247 


To  our  own  time  the  increase  of  knowledge  con- 
cerning the  myriads  of  sidereal  systems  which  re- 
volve through  space  is  not  held  to  be  destructive 
of  those  dogmas,  but  held,  rather,  to  supply  material 
for  speculation  as  to  the  probable  extension  of  Di- 
vine paternal  government  throughout  the  universe. 
And,  although,  as  coming  nearer  home,  with  conse- 
quent greater  chance  of  intrusion  of  elements  of 
friction,  the  like  applies  to  the  discoveries  of  geology. 
Apart  from  intellectual  apathy,  which  explains  much, 
the  impact  of  these  discoveries  on  traditional  beliefs 
was  softened  by  the  buffers  which  a  moderating 
spirit  of  criticism  interposed  in  the  shape  of  super- 
ficial "  reconciliations  "  emptying  the  old  cosmogony 
of  all  its  poetry,  and  therefore  of  its  value  as  a  key 
to  primitive  ideas,  and  converting  it  into  bastard 
science.  Thus  a  temporary,  because  artificial,  unity, 
was  set  up.  But  with  the  evidence  supplied  by 
study  of  the  ancient  life  whose  remains  are  imbedded 
in  the  fossil-yielding  strata,  that  unity  is  shivered. 
In  a  Scripture  that  "  cannot  be  broken  "  there  was 
read  the  story  of  conflict  and  death  aeons  before  man 
appeared.  Between  this  record,  and  that  which 
spoke  of  pain  and  death  as  the  consequences  of 
man's  disobedience  to  the  frivolous  prohibition  of 
an  anthropomorphic  God,  there  is  no  possible  recon- 
ciliation. 

To  the  evidence  from  fossiliferous  beds  was 
added  evidence  from  old  river-gravels  and  limestone 
caverns.     The  relics  extracted  from  the  stalagmitic 


248  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

deposits  in  Kent's  Hole,  near  Torquay,  had  lain  un- 
heeded for  some  years  save  as  "  curios,"  when  M. 
Boucher  des  Perthes  saw  in  the  worked  flints  of  a 
somewhat  rougher  type  which  he  found  mingled  with 
the  bones  of  rhinoceroses,  cave-bears,  mammoths,  or 
woolly-haired  elephants,  and  other  mammals  in  the 
''  drift "  or  gravel-pits  of  Abbeville,  in  Picardy,  the 
proofs  of  man's  primitive  savagery,  so  far  as  Western 
Europe  was  concerned.  The  presence  of  these 
rudely-chipped  flints  had  been  noticed  by  M.  de 
Perthes  in  1839,  but  he  could  not  persuade  savants 
to  admit  that  human  hands  had  shaped  them,  until 
these  doubting  Thomases  saw  for  themselves  like 
implements  in  situ  at  a  depth  of  seventeen  feet  from 
the  original  surface  of  the  ground.  That  was  in 
1858:  a  year  before  the  publication  of  the  Origin  of 
Species.  Similar  materials  have  been  unearthed 
from  every  part  of  the  globe  habitable  once  or  in- 
habited now.  They  confirm  the  speculations  of  Lu- 
cretius as  to  a  universal  makeshift  with  stone,  bone, 
horn,  and  such-like  accessible  or  pliable  substances 
during  the  ages  that  preceded  the  discovery  of 
metals.  Therefore,  the  existence  of  a  Stone  Age  at 
one  period  or  another  where  now  an  Age  of  Iron 
(following  an  Age  of  Bronze)  prevails,  is  an  estab- 
lished canon  of  archaeological  science.  From  this 
follows  the  inference  that  man's  primitive  condition 
was  that  which  corresponds  to  the  lowest  type  ex- 
tant, the  Australian  and  Papuan;  that  the  further 
back  inquiry  is  pushed  such  culture  as  exists  is  found 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


249 


to  have  been  preceded  by  barbarism;  and  that  the 
savage  races  of  to-day  represent  not  a  degradation  to 
which  man,  as  the  resuU  of  a  fall  from  primeval  purity 
and  Eden-like  ease,  has  sunk,  but  a  condition  out  of 
which  all  races  above  the  savage  have  emerged. 

While  Prehistoric  Archseology,  with  its  enormous 
mass  of  material  remains  gathered  from  "  dens  and 
caves  of  the  earth,"  from  primitive  work-shops,  from 
rude  tombs  and  temples,  thus  adds  its  testimony  to 
the  "  great  cloud  of  witnesses  " ;  immaterial  remains, 
potent  as  embodying  the  thought  of  man,  are  brought 
by  the  twin  sciences  of  Comparative  Mythology  and 
Folklore,  and  Comparative  Theology — remains  of 
paramount  value,  because  existing  to  this  day  in 
hitherto  unsuspected  form,  as  survivals  in  beliefs  and 
rites  and  customs.  Readers  of  Tylor's  Primitive 
Culture,  with  its  wealth  of  facts  and  their  signifi- 
cance; and  of  Lyall's  Asiatic  Studies,  wherein  is  de- 
scribed the  making  of  myths  to  this  day  in  the  heart 
of  India;  need  not  be  told  how  the  slow  zigzag  ad- 
vance of  man  in  material  things  has  its  parallel  in 
the  stages  of  his  intellectual  and  spiritual  advance 
all  the  world  over;  from  the  lower  animism  to  the 
higher  conception  of  deity ;  from  bewildering  guesses 
to  assuring  certainties.  To  this  mode  of  progress 
no  civilized  people  has  been  the  exception,  as  notably 
in  the  case  of  the  Hebrews,  was  once  thought — "  the 
correspondence  between  the  old  Israelitic  and  other 
archaic  forms  of  theology  extending  to  details." 

While,  therefore,  the  discoveries  of  astronomers 
17 


250 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


and  geologists  have  been  disintegrating  agencies 
upon  old  beliefs,  the  discoveries  classed  under  the 
general  term  Anthropological  are  acting  as  more 
powerful  solvents  on  every  opinion  of  the  past. 
Showing  on  what  mythical  foundation  the  story  of 
the  fall  of  man  rests,  Anthropology  has  utterly  de- 
molished the  raison  d'etre  of  the  doctrine  of  his  re- 
demption— the  keystone  of  the  fabric.  It  has  pene- 
trated the  mists  of  antiquity,  and  traced  the  myth  of 
a  forfeited  Paradise,  of  the  Creation,  the  Deluge,  and 
other  legends,  to  their  birthplaces  in  the  valley  of 
the  Euphrates  or  the  uplands  of  Persia;  legends 
whose  earliest  inscribed  records  are  on  Accadian 
tablets,  or  in  the  scriptures  of  Zarathustra.  It  has 
in  the  spirit  of  the  commended  Bereans,  "  searched  " 
those  and  other  scriptures,  finding  therein  legends 
of  founders  of  ancient  faiths  cognate  to  those  which 
in  the  course  of  the  centuries  gathered  round  Jesus 
of  Nazareth;  it  has  collated  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
of  many  a  barbaric  theology  with  those  of  old-world 
religions — Brahmanic,  Buddhistic,  Christian — and 
found  only  such  differences  between  them  as  are 
referable  to  the  higher  or  the  lower  culture.  For 
the  history  of  superstitions  is  included  in  the  history 
of  beUefs ;  the  superstitions  being  the  germ-plasm  of 
which  all  beliefs  above  the  lowest  are  the  modified 
products.  Belief  incarnates  itself  in  word  or  act.  In 
the  one  we  have  the  charm,  the  invocation,  and  the 
dogma;  in  the  other  the  ritual  and  ceremony.  "A 
ritual  system,"  Professor  Robertson  Smith  remarks, 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


251 


"  must  always  remain  materialistic,  even  if  its  mate- 
rialism is  disguised  under  the  cloak  of  mysticism." 
And  it  is  with  the  incarnated  ideas,  uninfluenced  by 
the  particular  creed  in  connection  with  which  it  finds 
them,  that  anthropology  deals.  Its  method  is  that  of 
biology.  Without  bias,  without  assumptions  of  rela- 
tive truth  or  falsity,  the  anthropologist  searches  into 
origins,  traces  variations,  compares  and  classifies, 
and  relates  the  several  families  to  one  ordinal  group. 
He  must  be  what  was  said  of  Dante,  "  a  theologian 
to  whom  no  dogma  is  foreign."  Unfortunately,  this 
method,  whose  application  to  the  physical  sciences 
is  unchallenged,  is,  when  applied  to  beliefs,  regarded 
as  one  of  attack,  instead  of  being  one  of  explanation. 
But  this  should  not  deter;  and  if  in  analyzing  a  be- 
lief we  kill  a  superstition,  this  does  but  show  what 
mortality  lay  at  its  core.  For  error  cannot  survive 
dissection.  Moreover,  as  John  Morley  puts  it,  "  to 
tamper  with  veracity  is  to  tamper  with  the  vital 
force  of  human  progress."  Therefore,  delivering  im- 
partial judgment,  the  verdict  of  anthropology  upon 
the  whole  matter  is  that  the  claims  of  Christian 
theologians  to  a  special  and  divine  origin  of  their 
religion  are  refuted  by  the  accordant  evidence  of  the 
latest  utterances  of  a  science  whose  main  concern  is 
with  the  origin,  nature,  and  destiny  of  man. 

The  extension  of  the  comparative  method  to  the 
various  products  of  man's  intellectual  and  spiritual 
nature  is  the  logical  sequence  to  the  adoption  of  that 
method  throughout  every  department  of  the  uni- 


252 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


verse.  Of  course  it  starts  with  the  assumption  of  dif- 
ferences in  things,  else  it  would  be  superfluous.  But 
it  equally  starts  with  the  assumption  of  resemblances, 
and  in  every  case  it  has  brought  out  the  fact  that 
the  differences  are  superficial,  and  that  the  resem- 
blances are  fundamental. 

All  this  bears  closely  on  Huxley's  work.  The 
impulse  thereto  has  come  largely  from  the  evidence 
focussed  in  Man's  Place  in  Nature,  evidence  of  which 
the  material  of  the  writings  of  his  later  years  is  the 
expansion.  The  cultivation  of  intellect  and  character 
had  always  been  a  favourite  theme  with  him,  and 
the  interest  was  widened  when  the  passing  of  Mr. 
Forster's  Elementary  Education  Act  in  1870  brought 
the  problem  of  popular  culture  to  the  front.  The 
wave  of  enthusiasm  carried  a  group  of  distinguished 
liberal  candidates  to  the  polls,  and  Huxley  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  School  Board  for  London. 
Then,  although  in  not  so  acute  a  form  as  now,  the 
religious  difficulty  was  the  sole  cause  of  any  serious 
division,  and  Huxley's  attitude  therein  puzzled  a 
good  many  people  because  he  advocated  the  reten- 
tion of  the  Bible  in  the  schools.  Those  who  should 
have  known  him  better  thought  that  he  was  (to 
quote  from  one  of  his  letters  to  the  writer)  "  a  hypo- 
crite, or  simply  a  fool."  "  But,"  he  adds,  "  my  mean- 
ing was  that  the  mass  of  the  people  should  not  be 
deprived  of  the  one  great  literature  which  is  open 
to  them,  nor  shut  out  from  the  perception  of  its 
place  in  the  whole  past  history  of  civiHsed  mankind." 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


253 


He  lamented,  as  every  thoughtful  person  must  la- 
ment, the  decay  of  Bible  reading  in  this  generation, 
while,  at  the  same  time,  he  advocated  the  more 
strenuously  its  detachment  from  the  glosses  and 
theological  inferences  which  do  irreparable  injury 
to  a  literature  whose  value  .cannot  be  overrated. 

For  Huxley  was  well  read  in  history,  and  there- 
fore he  would  not  trust  the  clergy  as  interpreters  of 
the  Bible.  After  repeating  in  the  Prologue  to  his 
Essays  on  Controverted  Questions  what  he  had  said 
about  the  book  in  his  article  on  the  School  Boards 
in  Critiques  and  Addresses,  he  adds,  **  I  laid  stress 
on  the  necessity  of  placing  such  instruction  in  lay 
hands;  in  the  hope  and  belief  that  it  would  thus 
gradually  accommodate  itself  to  the  coming  changes 
of  opinion;  that  the  theology  and  the  legend  would 
drop  more  and  more  out  of  sight,  while  the  peren- 
nially interesting  historical,  literary,  and  ethical  con- 
tents would  come  more  and  more  into  view." 

Subsequent  events  have  justified  neither  the  hope 
nor  the  belief.  Had  Huxley  lived  to  see  that  all 
the  sectaries,  while  quarrelling  as  to  the  particular 
dogmas  which  may  be  deduced  from  the  Bible,  agree 
in  refusing  to  use  it  other  than  as  an  instrument  for 
the  teaching  of  dogma,  he  would  probably  have  come 
to  see  that  the  only  solution  in  the  interests  of  the 
young,  is  its  exclusion  from  the  schools.  Never 
has  any  collection  of  writings,  whose  miscellaneous, 
unequal,  and  often  disconnected  character  is  obscured 
by  the  common  title  ''  Bible  "  which  covers  them, 


254 


PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 


had  such  need  for  dehverance  from  the  so-called 
*'  believers  "  in  it.  Its  value  is  only  to  be  realized  in 
the  degree  that  theories  of  its  inspiration  are  aban- 
doned. Then  only  is  it  possible  to  treat  it  like  any 
other  literature  of  the  kind;  to  discriminate  between 
the  coarse  and  barbaric  features  which  evidence  the 
humanness  of  its  origin,  and  the  loftier  features  of 
its  later  portions  which  also  evidence  how  it  falls  into 
line  with  other  witnesses  of  man's  gradual  ethical 
and  spiritual  development. 

Huxley's  breadth  of  view,  his  sympathy  with 
every  branch  of  culture,  his  advocacy  of  literary  in 
unison  with  scientific  training,  fitted  him  supremely 
for  the  work  of  the  School  Board,  but  its  demands 
were  too  severe  on  a  man  never  physically  strong, 
and  he  was  forced  to  resign.  However,  he  was 
thereby  set  free  for  other  work,  which  could  be  only 
effectively  done  by  exchanging  the  arena  for  the 
study.  The  earliest  important  outcome  of  that  re- 
lief was  the  monograph  on  Hume,  published  in  1879, 
and  the  latest  was  the  Romanes  lecture  on  Evolu- 
tion and  Ethics,  which  was  delivered  in  the  Shel- 
donian  Theatre  at  Oxford  on  the  i8th  of  May,  1893. 
Between  the  two  lie  a  valuable  series  of  papers  deal- 
ing with  the  Evolution  of  Theology  and  cognate  sub- 
jects. In  all  these  we  have  the  application  of  the 
theory  of  Evolution  to  the  explanation  of  the  origin 
of  beliefs  and  of  the  basis  of  morals.  To  quote  the 
saying  attributed  to  Liebnitz,  both  Spencer  and 
Huxley,  and  all  who  follow  them,  care  for  ''  science 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


2S5 


only  because  it  enables  them  to  speak  with  authority 
in  philosophy  and  religion."  In  a  letter  to  the  writer, 
wherein  Huxley  refers  to  his  retirement  from  official 
life,  he  says: — 

I  was  so  ill  that  I  thought  with  Hamlet,  "  the  rest  is  silence." 
But  my  wiry  constitution  has  unexpectedly  weathered  the  storm, 
and  I  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  with  renunciation  of  the 
devil  and  all  his  works  (i.  e.,  public  speaking,  dining,  and  be- 
ing dined,  etc.)  my  faculties  may  be  unimpaired  for  a  good 
spell  yet,  And  whether  my  lease  is  long  or  short,  I  mean  to 
devote  them  to  the  work  I  began  in  the  paper  on  the  Evolu- 
tion of  Theology. 

That  essay  was  first  published  in  two  sections  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century,  1886,  and  was  the  sequel 
to  the  eighth  chapter  of  his  Hume.  The  Romanes 
Lecture  supplemented  the  last  chapter  of  that  book. 
All  these  are  accessible  enough  to  render  superfluous 
any  abstract  of  their  contents.  But  the  tribute  due 
to  David  Hume,  who  may  well-nigh  claim  place 
among  the  few  but  fit  company  of  Pioneers,  war- 
rants reference  to  his  anticipation  of  accepted  theo- 
ries of  the  origin  of  belief  in  spiritual  beings  in  his 
Natural  History  of  Religion,  published  in  1757.  He 
says :  "  There  is  an  universal  tendency  among  man- 
kind to  conceive  all  beings  like  themselves,  and  to 
transfer  to  every  object  those  qualities  with  which 
they  are  familiarly  acquainted,  and  of  which  they 
are  intimately  conscious.  .  .  .  The  unknown  causes 
which  continually  employ  their  thought,  appearing 
always  in  the  same  aspect,  are  all  apprehended  to 
be  of  the  same  kind  or  species.     Nor  is  it  long  be- 


256  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

fore  we  ascribe  to  them  thought,  and  reason,  and 
passion,  and  sometimes  even  the  Hmbs  and  figures 
of  men,  in  order  to  bring  them  nearer  to  a  resem- 
blance with  ourselves."  In  his  address  to  the  Sor- 
bonne  on  The  Successive  Advances  of  the  Human 
Mind,  delivered  in  1750,  Turgot  expresses  the  same 
idea,  touching,  as  John  Morley  says  in  his  essay  on 
that  statesman,  "  the  root  of  most  of  the  wrong 
thinking  that  has  been  as  a  manacle  to  science." 

The  foregoing,  and  passages  of  a  like  order,  are 
made  by  Huxley  the  text  of  his  elaborations  of  the 
several  stages  of  theological  evolution,  the  one  note 
of  all  of  which  is  the  continuity  of  belief  in  super- 
natural intervention.  But  more  important  than  the 
decay  of  that  belief  which  is  the  prelude  to  decay  of 
belief  in  deity  itself  as  commonly  defined,  is  the 
resulting  transfer  of  the  foundation  of  morals,  in 
other  words,  of  motives  to  conduct,  from  a  theo- 
logical to  a  social  base.  Theology  is  not  morality; 
indeed,  it  is,  too  often,  immorality.  It  is  concerned 
with  man's  relations  to  the  gods  in  whom  he  believes ; 
>.\  while  morals  are  concerned  with  man's  relations  to 
his  fellows.  The  one  looks  heavenward,  wondering 
what  dues  shall  be  paid  the  gods  to  win  their  smiles 
or  ward  off  their  frowns.  In  old  Rome  sanctitas  or 
holiness,  was,  according  to  Cicero,  "  the  knowledge 
of  the  rites  which  had  to  be  performed."  These  done, 
the  gods  were  expected  to  do  their  part.  So  in  new 
Rome,  when  the  Catholic  has  attended  mass,  his 
share  in  the  contract  is  ended.    Worship  and  sacri- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  257 

fice,  as  mere  acts  toward  supernatural  beings,  may 
be  consonant  with  any  number  of  lapses  in  conduct. 
Morality,  on  the  other  hand,  looks  earthward,  and 
is  prompted  to  action  solely  by  what  is  due  from  a 
man  to  his  fellow-men,  or  from  his  fellow-men  to 
him.  Its  foundation  therefore  is  not  in  supernatural 
beHefs,  but  in  social  instincts.  All  sin  is  thus  resolved 
into  an  anti-social  act:  a  wrong  done  by  man  to 
man. 

This  is  not  merely  readjustment;  it  is  revolution. 
For  it  is  the  rejection  of  theology  with  its  appeals 
to  human  obligation  to  deity,  and  to  man's  hopes  of 
future  reward  or  fears  of  future  punishment;  and  it 
is  the  acceptance  of  wholly  secular  motives  as  in- 
centives to  right  action.  Those  motives,  having 
their  foundation  in  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
results  of  our  deeds,  rest  on  a  stable  basis.  No 
longer  interlaced  with  the  unstable  theological,  they 
neither  abide  nor  perish  with  it.  And  one  redeem- 
ing feature  of  our  time  is  that  the  churches  are  be- 
ginning to  see  this,  and  to  be  effected  by  it.  John 
Morley  caustically  remarks  that  "  the  efforts  of  the 
heterodox  have  taught  them  to  be  better  Christians 
than  they  were  a  hundred  years  ago."  Certain  ex- 
tremists excepted,  they  are  keeping  dogma  in  the 
background,  and  are  laying  stress  on  the  socialism 
which  it  is  contended  was  at  the  heart  of  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus.  Wisely,  if  not  very  consistently,  they 
are  seeking  alliance  with  the  liberal  movements 
whose  aim  is  the  "  abolition  of  privilege."    The  lib- 


258  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

eral  theologians,  in  the  face  of  the  varying  ethical 
standards  which  mark  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New,  no  longer  insist  on  the  absoluteness  of  moral 
codes,  and  so  fall  into  line  with  the  evolutionist  in 
his  theory  of  their  relativeness.  For  society  in  its 
advance  from  lower  to  higher  conceptions  of  duty, 
completely  reverses  its  ethics,  looking  back  with 
horror  on  that  which  was  once  permitted  and  un- 
questioned. 

It  is  with  this  checking  of  '*  the  ape  and  tiger," 
and  this  fostering  of  the  ''  angel "  in  man,  that  Hux- 
ley dealt  in  his  Romanes  Lecture.  There  was  much 
unintelligent,  and  some  wilful,  misunderstanding  of 
his  argument,  else  a  prominent  Catholic  biologist 
would  hardly  have  welcomed  it  as  a  possible  prelude 
to  Huxley's  submission  to  the  Church.  Yet  the 
reasoning  was  clear  enough,  and  in  no  wise  contra- 
vened the  application  of  Evolution  to  morals.  Hux- 
ley showed  that  Evolution  is  both  cosmical  and  ethical. 
Cosmic  Evolution  has  resulted  in  the  universe  with 
its  non-living  and  living  contents,  and  since,  deal- 
ing with  the  conditions  which  obtain  on  our  planet, 
there  is  not  sufficient  elbow-room  or  food  for  all  the 
offspring  of  living  things,  the  result  is  a  furious 
struggle  in  which  the  strong  win  and  transmit  their 
advantages  to  their  descendants.  Nature  is  wholly 
selfish;  the  race  is  to  the  swift,  and  the  battle  to  the 
strong. 

But  there  are  limits  set  to  that  struggle  by  man 
in  the  substitution,  also  within  limits,  of  social  prog- 


MODERN  EVOLUTION. 


259 


ress  for  cosmic  progress.  In  this  Ethical  Evolution 
selfishness  is  so  far  checked  as  to  permit  groups  of 
human  beings  to  Hve  together  in  amity,  recognis- 
ing certain  common  rights,  which  restrain  the  self- 
regarding  impulses.  For,  in  the  words  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  "  that  which  is  not  good  for  the  swarm 
is  not  good  for  the  bee "  (Med.,  vi,  54).  Huxley 
aptly  likens  this  counter-process  to  the  action  of 
a  gardener  in  dealing  with  a  piece  of  waste  ground. 
He  stamps  out  the  weeds,  and  plants  fragrant  flowers 
and  useful  fruits.  But  he  must  not  relax  his  efforts, 
otherwise  the  weeds  will  return,  and  the  untended 
plants  will  be  choked  and  perish.  So  in  conduct. 
For  the  common  weal,  in  which  the  unit  shares, 
thus  blending  the  selfish  and  the  unselfish  motives, 
men  check  their  natural  impulses.  The  emotions  and 
affections  which  they  share  with  the  lower  social 
animals,  only  in  higher  degree,  are  co-operative,  and 
largely  help  the  development  of  family,  tribal,  and 
national  life.  But  once  let  these  )^e  weakened,  and 
society  becomes  a  bear-garden.  Force  being  the 
dominant  factor  in  life,  the  struggle  for  existence 
revives  in  all  its  primitive  violence,  and  atavism  as- 
serts its  power.  Therefore,  although  he  do  the  best 
that  in  him  lies,  man  can  only  set  limits  to  that  strug- 
gle, for  the  ethical  process  is  an  integral  part  of  the 
cosmic  powers,  "  just  as  the  '  governor '  in  a  steam- 
engine  is  part  of  the  mechanism  of  the  engine." 
As  with  society,  so  with  its  units:  there  is  no  truce 
in  the  contest.    Dr.  Plimmer,  an  eminent  bacteriolo- 


/ 


26o  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

gist,  describes  to  the  writer  the  action  of  a  kind  of 
yeast  upon  a  species  of  Daphnia,  or  water-flea. 
Metschnikoff  observed  that  these  yeast-cells,  which 
enter  with  the  animal's  food,  penetrate  the  intestines, 
and  get  into  the  tissues.  They  are  there  seized  upon 
by  the  leukocytes,  which  gather  round  the  invaders 
in  larger  fashion,  as  if  seemingly  endowed  with  con- 
sciousness, so  marvellous  is  the  strategy.  If  they 
win,  the  Daphnia  recovers;  if  they  lose,  it  dies.  ''  In 
a  similar  manner  in  ourselves  certain  leukocytes 
(phagocytes)  accumulate  at  any  point  of  invasion, 
and  pick  up  the  living  bacteria,"  and  in  the  success 
or  failure  of  their  attack  lies  the  fate  of  man.  Which 
things  are  fact  as  well  as  allegory;  and  time  is  on 
the  side  of  the  bacteria.  For  as  our  life  is  but  a  tem- 
porary arrest  of  the  universal  movement  toward  dis- 
solution, so  naught  in  our  actions  can  arrest  the 
destiny  of  our  kind.  Huxley  thus  puts  it  in  the  con- 
cluding sentences  of  his  Preface — written  in  July, 
1894,  one  year  before  his  death — to  the  reissue  of 
Evolution  and  Ethics: 

"  That  man,  as  a  '  political  animal,'  is  susceptible 
of  a  vast  amount  of  improvement,  by  education,  by 
instruction,  and  by  the  application  of  his  intelligence 
to  the  adaptation  of  the  conditions  of  life  to  his 
higher  needs,  I  entertain  not  the  slightest  doubt. 
But,  so  long  as  he  remains  liable  to  error,  intellectual 
or  moral;  so  long  as  he  is  compelled  to  be  perpet- 
ually on  guard  against  the  cosmic  forces,  whose  ends 
are   not  his   ends,   without  and  within  himself;  so 


MODERN  E  VOL  UTION,  26 1 

long  as  he  is  haunted  by  inexpugnable  memories 
and  hopeless  aspirations;  so  long  as  the  recognition 
of  his  intellectual  limitations  forces  him  to  acknowl- 
edge his  incapacity  to  penetrate  the  mystery  of  ex- 
istence; the  prospect  of  attaining  untroubled  happi- 
ness, or  of  a  state  which  can,  even  remotely,  deserve 
the  title  of  perfection,  appears  to  me  to  be  as  mis- 
leading an  illusion  as  ever  was  dangled  before  the 
eyes  of  poor  humanity.  And  there  have  been  many 
of  them.  That  which  lies  before  the  human  race 
is  a  constant  struggle  to  maintain  and  improve,  in 
opposition  to  the  State  of  Nature,  the  State  of  Art 
of  an  organised  polity;  in  which,  and  by  which,  man 
may  develop  a  worthy  civilisation,  capable  of  main- 
taining and  constantly  improving  itself,  until  the 
evolution  of  our  globe  shall  have  entered  so  far  upon 
its  downward  course  that  the  cosmic  process  resumes 
its  sway;  and,  once  more,  the  State  of  Nature  pre- 
vails over  the  surface  of  our  planet." 

But  only  those  of  low  ideals  would  seek  in  this 
impermanence  of  things  excuse  for  inaction;  or 
worse,  for  self-indulgence.  The  world  will  last  a 
very  long  time  yet,  and  afford  scope  for  battle  against 
the  wrongs  done  by  man  to  man.  Even  were  it  and 
ourselves  to  perish  to-morrow,  our  duty  is  clear  while 
the  chance  of  doing  it  may  be  ours.  Clifford, — dead 
before  his  prime,  before  the  rich  promise  of  his 
genius  had  its  full  fruitage, — speaking  of  the  inevita- 
ble end  of  the  earth  "  and  all  the  consciousness  of 
men  "  reminds  us,  in  his  essay  on  The  First  and 


262  PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 

Last  Catastrophe,  that  we  are  helped  in  facing  the 
fact  "by  the  words  of  Spinoza:  'The  free  man 
thinks  of  nothing  so  Httle  as  of  death,  and  his  wis- 
dom is  a  meditation  not  of  death  but  of  Hfe/  "  "  Our 
interest,"  QifTord  adds,  *'  hes  with  so  much  of  the 
past  as  may  serve  to  guide  our  actions  in  the  present, 
and  to  intensify  our  pious  allegiance  to  the  fathers 
who  have  gone  before  us  and  the  brethren  who  are 
with  us;  and  our  interest  lies  with  so  much  of  the 
future  as  we  may  hope  will  be  appreciably  afifected 
by  our  good  actions  now.  Do  I  seem  to  say,  '  Let 
us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die?'  Far -from 
it;  on  the  contrary  I  say,  '  Let  us  take  hands  and 
help,  for  this  day  we  are  alive  together.'  " 

Evolution  and  Ethics  was  Huxley's  last  impor- 
tant deliverance,  since  the  completion  of  his  reply  to 
Mr.  Balfour's  "  quaintly  entitled "  Foundations  of 
Belief  was  arrested  by  his  death  on  the  30th  of  June, 

1895. 

In  looking  through  the  Collected  Essays,  which 
represent  his  non-technical  contributions  to  knowl- 
edge, there  may  be  regret  that  throughout  his  life 
circumstances  were  against  his  doing  any  piece  of 
long-sustained  work,  such  as  that  which,  for  exam- 
ple, the  affluence  and  patience  of  Darwin  permitted 
him  to  do.  But  until  Huxley's  later  years,  and,  in- 
deed, through  broken  health  to  the  end,  his  work 
outside  official  demands  had  to  be  done  fitfully  and 
piecemeal,  or  not  at  all.  Notwithstanding  this,  it  has 
the  unity  which  is  inspired  by  a  central  idea.     The 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  263 

application  of  the  theory  of  evolution  all  round  im- 
parts a  quality  of  relation  to  subjects  seemingly  di- 
verse. And  this  comes  out  clearly  and  strongly  in 
the  more  orderly  arrangement  of  the  material  in  the 
new  issue  of  Collected  Essays. 

These  show  what  an  omnivorous  reader  he  was; 
how  well  equipped  in  classics,  theology,  and  general 
literature,  in  addition  to  subjects  distinctly  his  own. 
He  sympathized  with  every  branch  of  culture.  As 
contrasted  with  physical  science,  he  said,  "  Nothing 
would  grieve  me  more  than  to  see  literary  training 
other  than  a  very  prominent  branch  of  education." 
One  corner  of  his  library  was  filled  with  a  strange 
company  of  antiquated  books  of  orthodox  type;  this 
he  called  "  the  condemned  cell."  When  looking  at 
the  "  strange  bedfellows  "  that  slept  on  the  shelves, 
the  writer  asked  Huxley  what  author  had  most  in- 
fluenced a  style  whose  clearness  and  vigour,  never- 
theless, seems  unborrowed;  and  he  at  once  named 
the  masculine  and  pelluccid  Leviathan  of  Hobbes.  He 
had  the  happy  faculty  of  rapidly  assimilating  what  he 
read;  of  clearly  grasping  an  opponent's  standpoint; 
and  what  is  a  man's  salvation  nowadays,  freedom 
from  that  curse  of  specialism  which  kills  all  sense  of 
proportion,  and  reduces  its  slave  to  the  level  of  the 
machine-hand  that  spends  his  life  in  making  the 
heads  of  screws.  He  believed  in  "  scepticism  as  the 
highest  duty,  and  in  blind  faith  as  the  one  unpardon- 
able sin."  "  And,"  he  adds,  ''  it  cannot  be  otherwise, 
for  every  great  advance  in  natural  knowledge  has 


264  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION, 

involved  the  absolute  rejection  of  authority,  the  cher- 
ishing of  the  keenest  scepticism,  the  annihilation  of 
the  spirit  of  blind  faith;  and  the  most  ardent  votary 
of  science  holds  his  firmest  convictions,  not  because 
the  men  he  most  venerates  holds  them;  not  because 
their  verity  is  testified  by  portents  and  wonders;  but 
because  his  experience  teaches  him  that  whenever 
he  chooses  to  bring  these  convictions  into  contact 
with  their  primary  source.  Nature — ^whenever  he 
thinks  fit  to  test  them  by  appealing  to  experiment 
and  to  observation — Nature  will  confirm  them.  The 
man  of  science  has  learned  to  believe  in  justification, 
not  by  faith,  but  by  verification."  Therefore  he 
nursed  no  illusions;  would  not  say  that  he  knew 
when  he  did  not  or  could  not  know,  and  bidding  us 
follow  the  evidence  whithersoever  it  leads  us,  re- 
mains the  surest-footed  guide  of  our  time.  Such 
leadership  is  his,  since  he  has  gone  on  "from  strength 
to  strength."  The  changes  in  the  attitude  of  man 
toward  momentous  questions  which  new  evidence 
and  the  zeit-geist  have  effected,  have  been  approaches 
to  the  position  taken  by  Huxley  since  he  first  caught 
the  pubHc  ear.  His  deep  religious  feeling  kept  him 
in  sympathetic  touch  with  his  fellows.  Ever  present 
to  him  was  "  that  consciousness  of  the  limitation  of 
man,  that  sense  of  an  open  secret  which  he  cannot 
penetrate,  in  which  lies  the  essence  of  all  religion." 
In  one  of  his  replies  to  a  prominent  exponent  of 
the  Comtian  philosophy,  that  "  incongruous  mixture 
of  bad  science  with  eviscerated  papistry,"  as  he  calls 


MODERN  EVOLUTION.  265 

it,  Huxley  protests  against  the  idea  that  the  teaching 
of  science  is  wholly  negative. 

I  venture,  he  says,  to  count  it  an  improbable  suggestion 
that  any  one  who  has  graduated  in  all  the  faculties  of  human 
relationships ;  who  has  taken  his  share  in  all  the  deep  joys 
and  deeper  anxieties  which  cling  about  them,  who  has  felt  the 
burden  of  young  lives  entrusted  to  his  care,  and  has  stood 
alone  with  his  dead  before  the  abyss  of  the  Eternal — has  never 
had  a  thought  beyond  negative  criticism. 

That  is  the  Agnostic  position  as  he  defined  it; 
an  attitude,  not  a  creed;  and  if  he  refused  to  affirm, 
he  equally  refused  to  deny. 

Thus  have  the  Pioneers  of  Evolution,  clear- 
sighted and  sure-footed,  led  us  by  ways  undreamed- 
of at  the  start  to  a  goal  imdreamed-of  by  the  earliest 
among  them.  To  have  halted  on  the  route  when  the 
graver  difficulties  of  the  road  began  would  have  made 
the  journey  futile,  and  have  left  their  followers  in 
the  wilds.  Evolution,  applied  to  everything  up  to 
man,  but  stopping  at  the  stage  when  he  appears, 
would  have  remained  a  fascinating  study,  but  would 
not  have  become  a  guiding  philosophy  of  life.  It 
is  in  the  extension  of  its  processes  as  explanation  of 
all  that  appertains  to  mankind  that  its  abiding  value 
consists.  That  extension  was  inevitable.  The  old 
theologies  of  civilized  races,  useful  in  their  day,  be- 
cause answering,  however  imperfectly,  to  permanent 
needs  of  human  nature,  no  longer  sufBce.  Their 
dogmas  are  traced  as  the  lineal  descendants  of  bar- 
baric conceptions;  their  rittial  is  becoming  an  archse- 


266  PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

ologlcal  curiosity.  They  have  no  answer  to  the 
questions  propounded  by  the  growing  intelligence  of 
our  time;  neither  can  they  satisfy  the  emotions 
which  they  but  feebly  discipline.  Their  place  is 
being  slowly,  but  surely,  and  more  effectively,  filled 
by  a  theory  which,  interpreting  the  "  mighty  sum  of 
things,"  substitutes  clear  conceptions  of  unbroken 
order  and  relation  between  phenomena,  in  place  of 
hazy  conceptions  of  intermittent  interferences;  a 
theory  which  gives  more  than  it  takes  away.  For 
if  men  are  deprived  of  belief  in  the  pseudo-mysteries 
coined  in  a  pre-scientific  age,  their  wonder  is  fed, 
and  their  inquiry  is  stimulated,  by  the  consciousness 
of  the  impenetrable  mysteries  of  the  Universe. 


INDEX. 


Abdera,  i6. 

Abiogenesis,  216. 

Abraham,  54. 

Adam,  fall  of,  104  ;  stature  of,  107. 

Advent,  the  Second,  50,  70. 

-^gean,  the,  3. 

Agassiz,  162. 

Agrigentum,  13. 

Air  as  primary  substance,  13. 

Alexander  the  Great,  17. 

Alexandria,  conquest  of,  77  ;  phil- 
osophical schools  of,  77. 

Allegorical  method,  75. 

Allen,  Grant,  2,  113,  167. 

Amazons,  river,  136. 

America,  discovery  of,  84. 

Amoeba,  the,  224. 

Anatomy,  comparative,  230. 

human,  90. 

Anaxagoras,  14. 

Anaximander,  7,  20. 

Ancestor-worship,  70. 

Andromeda,  nebula  in,  178. 

Angels,  belief  in,  69. 

Animism,  69,  97,  244,  255. 

Anthropology  and  belief  in  the 
soul,  241. 

and  dogmas  of  the  Fall  and 

the  Redemption,  247,  250. 

and  man's  place  in  Evolu- 


Antioch,  47. 

Ape  and  man,  brain  of,  227. 

general  relation  of,  228. 


tion,  245. 


Aquinas,  Thomas,  20,  75. 
Arab  conquest,  76. 
philosophy,  79. 


Arch-fiend,  54. 

Aristotle,   17-19,    20,  32,  35,  36, 

74,  80,  81,  87,  163. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  13,  213. 
Ascent  of  Man,  Drummond's,  2ig. 
Asklepios,  29. 
Astruc,  Dr.,  103. 
Athens,  intellectual  decay  in,  35, 

77. 

persecution  in,  14. 

religious  revival  in,  ii. 


Atomic  theoiy,  16. 

Atonement,  doctrine  of  the,  and 

Anthropology,  250. 
Augurs,  31. 

Augustine,  St.,  20,  55,  74. 
Augustus,  Caesar,  42,  48. 
Aurelius,  Marcus,  51,  259. 
Averroes,  80. 
Avicenna,  loi. 

Bacon,  Lord,  93,  108. 
Bacon,  Roger,  82. 
Bacteria  and  leukocytes,  260. 
Bagehot,  Mr.,  2. 


267 


268 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Baghdad,  79. 

Balfour,  A.  J.,  262. 

Baptism,  origin  of  rite  of,  66. 

Bates,  H.  W.,  134,  136,  162,  167, 
208. 

Beagle,  voyage  of  the,  131. 

Benn,  A.  W.,  9,  19. 

Bible,  Dictionary  of  the,  107. 

Biology,  advance  in  study  of, 
108. 

Black  magic,  83. 

Body  and  mind,  mystery  of  con- 
nection between,  231. 

Bone,  resurrection,  90. 

Bonnet,  Charles,  21. 

"  Boundless,"  the,  7. 

Breathing,  symbolism  of,  69. 

Bruno,  Giordano,  8g. 

Buddha,  64. 

Buffon,  place  of,  in  theory  of 
Evolution,  no. 

submission  to  the  Sorbonne, 

104. 

Burnet,  Prof.,  5,  7,  16. 

Burton's  Anatomy,  60. 

Butcher,  Prof.,  4. 

Caesalpino,  91. 

Cairo,  80. 

Canon  of  the  Bible,  58,  88. 

Carpenter,  Dr.,  150,  233. 

Carthage,  78. 

Council  of,  58. 

Casalis,  Mr.,  i. 
Catat   Dr.,  242. 
Celtic  religion,  70. 
Chaldaea,  4. 

Chambers,  Robert,  119. 
Charles  Martel,  78. 
Chosroes,  77,  79. 


Christianity    and    Anthropology, 

251. 

anti-social  nature  of,  50. 

causes  of  success  of,  48,  56. 

opposition  to  inquiry,  40. 

origin  of,  37. 

pagan  elements  in,  59-73. 

philosophic  elements  in,  57. 

polytheism  of,  69. 

varying  fortunes  of,  38. 


Christians,  persecution  of,  49. 
Church  Congress  and  Evolution, 

159,  219. 
Circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  85. 
Clifford,  Prof.,  261. 
Collings,  41. 
Colophon,  g. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  84. 
Communion  at  Ha  warden  Church, 

68. 
Comtism,  264. 
Conduct,  bases  of,  186,  254. 
Consciousness,  evolution  of,  187, 

224. 

self-,  187. 


Conservation  of  energy,  33,  120, 

149,  177. 

Copernicus,  20,  86. 

Cox-dova,  80. 

Correlation  of  forces,  189. 

Cosmic  Evolution,  258. 

Councils,  general,  220. 

Courthope,  W.  J.,  164. 

Creation,  days  of,  103,  106. 

Credulity  of  the  learned,  148. 

Creeds,  52,  220. 

Criticism  of  religions,  features  of 

modern,  40. 
Cronus,  myth  of,  56. 
Crooke,  Mr.,  30. 


INDEX. 


269 


Cross,  relics  of  the,  72. 
Crown  of  thorns,  72. 
Cuvier,  114,  117,  163. 

and    Geoffroy    St.    Hilaire, 

214. 
Cybele,  29. 

Dalton,  John,  16,  125. 
Daphnia,  Dr.  Plimmer  on,  260. 
Darwin,  Charles,    126-134,   157- 

175. 

Life  and  Letters  of,  127, 157. 

religious  belief  of,  173. 

Erasmus,  21,  iii. 

Days  of  creation,  102,  106. 

De  Gama,  Vasco,  85. 

Deluge,  104,  107,  250. 

Demeter,  29,  67. 

Democritus,  16,  22,  33. 

Demons,  55,  75,  87. 

De  Perthes,  Boucher,  120,  248. 

De  Rerum  Natura,  24. 

Descartes,  91,  94,  216. 

Descent  into  Hell,  88. 

Descent  of  Man,  167,  172,  218. 

Development,  law  of,  189. 

Devil,  54,  83. 

De  Vinci,  Leonardo,  102. 

Diagoras,  63. 

Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  107. 

Dionysus,  67. 

Dispersion  of  the  Jews,  56,  77. 

Dogma  and  Evolution,  220. 

Driver,  Rev.  Canon,  53,  107. 

Dubois,  Dr.,  222. 

Duner,  Professor,  179. 

Earth  as  "  element,"  13. 

Greek    notions    about    the, 

6,  8. 


Education  and  dogma,  253. 
Egypt,  4,  6,  7. 
conquest  of,  77. 


Eleatic  school,  10. 
Elviri,  Synod  of,  62. 
Embryology,  118,  218. 
Empedocles,  13,  22,  27. 
Ephesus,  II. 
Epictetus,  51. 
Epicurus,  22,  27. 
Epigenesis,  21. 
Ethical  Evolution,  259. 
Etruscan  haruspices,  31. 
Eve,  stature  of,  107. 
Evil  eye,  69. 
Evolution  and  dogma,  220. 

cosmic,  258. 

ethical,  258. 

inclusion  of  man  in,  245. 

inorganic,  175. 

organic,  200. 


Evolution  and  Ethics,  Huxley  on, 
219,  254. 

Fall,  doctrine  of  the,  and  anthro- 
pology, 247. 
Fire,  as  primary  substance,  12. 
First  Principles,  167,  188. 
Fiske,  Professor,  8. 
Flint  implements,  248. 
Folk-lore,  value  of  study  of,  249. 
Fontenelle,  2. 
Fossils,  theories  about,  104. 
Frazer,  J.  G.,  66,  220. 

Galen,  90. 

Galileo,  discoveries  and  persecu- 
tion of,  91. 
Geology,  effect  of  study  of,  100. 
revival  of  study  of,  100. 


270 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Geology,  principles  of,  117. 

Gesner,  gi. 

Gibbon,  57,  58,  72,  219. 

Gladstone,  Mr.,  68. 

Gnosticism,  48. 

Gods  in  Rome,  29. 

Golden  Bough,  The,  66,  220. 

Gospels,  origin  of,  46. 

Gosse,  P.  H.,  104. 

Gower,  Dr.,  155. 

Granada,  80. 

Greece,  3. 

conquest  and  intellectual  de- 
cline of,  23. 

Greek  philosophers,  Table  of,  36. 

Greeks,  early  conception  of  earth 
by,  6,  8. 

search  of,  for  the  primary 

substance,  6. 

Grote,  15. 

Haeckel,  115,  164. 
Hallucinations,  153. 
Haroun  al-Raschid,  79. 
Hartley,  124. 
Haruspices,  31. 
Harvey,  William,  21,  93. 
Hawarden  Church,   Communion 

at,  68. 
Heine's  Travel-Pictures,  153. 
Hellenized  Jews,  56,  77. 
Helmholtz,  125. 
Henrion,  107. 
Heraclitus,  ii. 
Herakles,  29. 
Herodotus,  62. 

Herschel,  Sir  William,  95,  177. 
Hesiod,  10. 

Hippocampus  minor,  227. 
Hobbes'  Leviathan,  60,  263. 


Holy  Communion,  barbaric  origin 

of  rite  of,  66,  68. 
Homer,  8,  10,  12,  75. 
Hooker,  Sir  Joseph,  141,  162. 
Sir  William,  119. 


Horace,  63,  75. 

Huggins,  Dr.  Wm.,  178. 

Humanity  and  Evolution,  192. 

Humboldt,  121,  135. 

Hume,  97,  192,  216,  255. 

Hutton,  115. 

Huxley,  94,  157,  159,  201-266. 

Indigitamenta,  30. 
Inductive  philosophy,  the,  93. 
Inquisition,  the,  89,  91. 
Instinct,  229. 
Ionia,  3,  4,  6,  32. 
Isis,  29,  62. 

Jerome,  St.,  24,  105. 

Jerusalem,  early  disciples  of  Jesus 
at,  47. 

fall  of,  77. 

Jesus  at,  44. 

Jesus,  summary  of  life  of,  42-46. 

superstition  shared  by,  53- 

56. 

Jews,  Hellenized,  or  of  the  Dis- 
persion, 56,  77. 

Kant,  94,  175.  200. 
Kelvin,  Lord,  233. 
Kent's  Hole,  248. 
Khalifs,  76. 
Kirchoff,  178. 
Kropotkin,  Prince,  231. 

Lamarck,  114. 
Language,  229. 


INDEX, 


271 


La  Peyrere,  102. 
Laplace,  95,  176. 
Leading  Men  of  Science,  Table 

of,  123-125. 
Leibnitz,  124,  254. 
Leo  IIL,  78. 
L'Etui  de  Nacre,  45. 
Leucippus,  16,  23,  33,  36. 
Leukocytes,  260. 
Life  and  Letters,  Darwin's,  127, 

157,  173. 
Lightfoot,  Dr.,  103,  120. 
Linnaeus,  108. 
Linnean  Society,  famous  meeting 

at,  141,  181. 
Living    and    non-living   matter, 

connection  between,  34,  216. 
Locke,  94. 

Lodge,  Prof.  Oliver,  147. 
Love  as  an  "  element,"  14. 
Lubbock,  Sir  John,  168. 
Lucretius,     17,    23,    24-29,    41, 

248. 
Luther,  87. 

Lyall,  Sir  Alfred,  30,  38,  249. 
Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  117,  134,  162. 

Madonna,  64. 

Magellan,  85. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  5. 

Malay  Archipelago,  138. 

Malpighi,  2T. 

Malthus  on  Population,  iig,  133, 

139- 
Man  and  Evolution,  97,  143,  218, 

227,  236. 

■ and  ape,  brain  of,  227. 

— —  and  ape,  general   structure 

of,  143. 
— —  antiquity  of,  222. 


Man,  inclusion  of,  in  Evolution, 

233. 

lower  animals  and,  218,  227. 

primitive  state  of,  248. 

suckling,  period  of,  8. 

Manning,  Cardinal,  160. 

Man's  Place  in  Nature,  164,  167, 

213,  218,  252. 
Marcus  Aurelius,  51,  259. 
Martin,  R.  B.,  169. 
Martyr,  Peter,  87. 
Maskelyne,  Mr.,  148. 
Matter,  indestructibility  of,  33. 
living   and    non-living,    34, 


217. 

mystery   of,    180,  188,  216, 

232. 

Matthew,  Patrick,  118,  165. 

Maudsley,  Dr.,  156. 

Meckel,  118. 

Messiah,  Jewish  belief  in,  44,  46. 

Metals,  age  of,  28,  35,  248. 

Middleton,  Conyers,  60. 

Miletus,  6. 

Miracles  and  Modern  Spiritual- 
ism, 145,  237. 

Mithra  worship,  42,  50,  71. 

Mivart,  Prof.  St.  George,  233. 

Mohammed,  76. 

Montaigne,  38,  62, 

Morality,  essential  nature  of,  256. 

Morals  and  Evolution,  254. 

scientific  base  of,  256. 


Morley,  John,  39,  170,  251,  257. 
Motion,  concept  of,  178. 

indestructibility  of,  33. 

mystery   of,   180,   187,   216, 


232. 
Mummius,  23. 
Munro,  Mr.,  24. 


2/2 


PIONEERS   OF  EVOLUTION. 


Mysteries,  Greek,  49. 
Mystery  of  matter,  231. 

motion,  186,  187,  216,  232. 

Myth,  primitive,  features  of,  2. 

Nebula  in  Andromeda,  178. 
Nebular  theory,  94,  180. 
Nero,  48. 
Nervous  system,  disorders  of  the, 

153. 

origin  of  the,  225. 

New  Testament,  canon  of,  58,  88. 

origin  of,  51. 

Nicene  Creed,  52,  220. 
Nous  of  Anaxagoras,  16. 
Numbers,  in  primitive  thought,  9. 
Pythagorean   theory   of,   9, 

36. 

Organic  Evolution,  200. 

Origin  of  species,  142,  168,  2ii. 

publication  of,  157. 

reception  of,  157,  162. 

Osborn,  Prof.,  102,  119. 

Ovid,  219. 

Owen,  Sir  Richard,  attitude  of, 
towards  Darwin's  theory,  162, 
214. 

■ review  of  the  Origin  of  Spe- 
cies, 162. 

Pagan  elements  in  Christianity) 

59-73- 
Paladino,  Eusapia,  148. 
Palaeontology,  218. 
Palissy,  Bernard,  102. 
Pantheon,  Roman,  29. 
Papacy,  origin  of  the,  58, 
Paul,  St.,  47. 
Pausanias,  13. 


Pentateuch,  103. 

Pericles,  14. 

Persia,  intellectual  activity  in,  79. 

Perthes,    Boucher   de,   120,   125, 

248. 
Petrie,  Prof.  Flinders,  201. 
Philo,  58. 
Philosophy,  synthetic,    181,   195, 

199. 
Photography  in  Science,  178. 
Physical  Basis  of  Life,  Huxley 

on,  215. 
Pineal  gland,  theory  of  soul  in, 

91. 
Plato,  5,  52,  212. 
Polytheism,  feature  of,  49. 
in  Christianity,  71. 


Pontius  Pilate,  44,  48. 
Poppaea,  Sabina,  48. 
Prefonnation  theory,  21. 
Primary  substance,  33. 
search  after,  6. 


Protoplasm,  119. 

Psychical  Research,  Society  for, 

148. 
Psychology,  experimental,  230. 
Principles  of,  187,  189. 


Ptolemaic  System,  20,  88. 
Punch,  206, 
Pythagoras,  9. 

Pythagorean  theoiy  of  numbers, 
9.  36. 

Redi,  experiments  of,  216. 
Reformation  non-intellectual,  88. 
character  of  the,  86. 


Relics,  collection  of,  71. 
worship  of,  70. 


Revelations,  condition  of,  223. 
Rhys,  Professor,  64. 


INDEX. 


273 


Rodd,  Rennell,  29. 

Roman  doctrine  of  transubstan- 

tiation,  67. 
Rome,  bishop  of,  58. 

• fire  in,  48. 

gods  in,  29. 

polytheism  of,  49. 

Royal  Society,  99. 

Sacraments,  barbaric  origin  of, 
65-68. 

Saints,  fictitious,  64. 

Salisbury,  Lord,  Presidential  Ad- 
dress of,  179,  215. 

Samos,  22,  36. 

Sanctitas,  256. 

Saracens,  78. 

Savages,  brain  of,  240. 

Scheiner,  Professor,  179, 

School  Boards,  252. 

Schwann,  Theodor,  125. 

Science,  Leading  men  of,  123- 
125. 

Second  Coming  of  Jesus,  50,  70. 

Sedgwick,  162. 

Selden,  47,  220. 

Serapis,  71. 

Sin,  essence  of,  257. 

Sizzi,  92. 

Smith,  Professor  Robertson,  250. 

William  (geologist),  118. 

Social  Statics,  184. 

Society,  evolution  of,  184,  193. 

modification  of  struggle  in, 

259. 
Sociology,  Principles  of,  186,  199. 

study  of,  233. 

Socrates,  15. 

Solar  spectrum,  lines  in,  178. 

Sorbonne,  the,  104,  256. 


Soul,  origin  of  belief  in,  241-245. 

location  of,  91. 

Lucretius  on  location  of,  25. 


Spain,  intellectual  advance  in,  80. 

Spectroscope,  the,  178. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  31,  118,   121, 

162,  175-201,  233,  241,  254. 
Spinoza,  94. 
Spiritualism,  145,  156. 
Spontaneous  generation,  20,  74. 
Sprengel,  119,  125. 
St.  Hilaire,  107,  114. 
Stagira,  17. 
Stokes,  Sir  G.  G.,  234. 
Stone,  ages  of,  28,  35,  248. 
Strabo,  loi. 

Strife  as  an  "  element,"  14. 
Struggle  for  life,  131,  140,  258. 
Suarez,  Francisco,  222. 
Synthetic  philosophy,  182. 

abstract  of  the,  195,  199. 

first  draft  of,  199. 


Table  of  Greek  Philosophers,  36. 
of  leading  men  of  science, 


123-125, 

Tacitus,  48. 

Thales,  6,  8,  17. 

Theology  and  Evolution,  final  is- 
sue between,  223. 

Theophrastus,  7,  16. 

Theosophy,  9. 

Tozer,  Mr.,  30. 

Transubstantiation,  origin  of  be- 
lief in,  67. 

Turgot,  39,  256. 

Tylor,  Dr.,  168.  241,  246. 

Tyndall,  Professor,  205,  207,  216. 

Usher,  Archbishop,  103. 


274 


PIONEERS  OF  EVOLUTION. 


Van  Helmont,  20. 

Vatican    Council    on    Creation, 

33. 
Vesalius,  go. 
Vestiges  of  Creation,  119,    135, 

209. 
Virgin  Mary,  60. 
Virgins,  Black,  64. 
Visual  sensations,  subjective,  154. 
Von   Baer,    118,    125,    189,    194, 

200. 
Von  Mohl,  119,  125. 
Votive  offerings,  62. 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russel,  134-157, 

as  biologist,  143. 

as  spiritualist,  145-157. 

limitation  of  natural  selec- 
tion to  man's  physical  struc- 
ture, 144,  235-241. 

theory  of  origin  of  species 

identical  with  Darwin's,  140. 

"  Wallace's  Line,"  139. 


Water  as  primary  substance,  7. 
Water-worship,  61,  63. 
Weismann,  117. 
Wells,  Dr.  W.  C,  166. 
Wesley,  John,  55,  105. 
Whewell,  Dr.,  159. 
White,  Dr.,  103. 
Wilberforce,  Bishop,  and  the  Or- 
igin of  Species,  160. 
and  Huxley,  213. 


Wilson,  Archdeacon,  161,  2ig. 
Winifred's  Well,  St.,  63. 
Witchcraft,  belief  in,  55. 
causes  of  decay  of  belief  in, 

98. 
Worms,  Darwin  on  the  Action  of, 

168. 

Xenophanes,  g,  19. 

Zahm,  Professor,  222. 
Zeller,  g. 
Zeno,  10. 


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to  history  in  importance — nay,  are  a  vital  part  of  history." — Boston  Transcript. 

"A  biographical  history  of  science  in  America,  noteworthy  for  its  completeness  and 
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curacy, and  the  information  convej^ed,  combine  to  give  them  great  value  and  interest. 
No  better  or  more  inspiring  reading  could  be  placed  m  the  hands  of  an  intelligent  and 
aspiring  young  man." — New  York  Christian  Work. 

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Express. 

"Full  of  interesting  and  valuable  matter." — The  Churchman. 


New  York :  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 


^THE  RISE  AND   GROWTH  OF  THE  ENG- 

LISH  NATION.  With  Special  Reference  to  Epochs  and 
Crises.  A  History  of  and  for  the  People.  By  W.  H.  S. 
Aubrey,  LL.  D.     In  Three  Volumes.     i2ino.     Cloth,  $4.50. 

"  The  merit  of  this  work  is  intrinsic.  It  rests  on  the  broad  intelligence  and  true 
philosophy  of  the  method  employed,  and  the  coherency  and  accuracy  of  the  results 
reached.  The  scope  of  the  work  is  marvelous.  Never  was  there  more  crowded  into 
three  small  volumes.  But  the  saving  of  space  is  not  by  the  sacrifice  of  substance  or 
of  style.  The  broadest  view  of  the  facts  and  forces  embraced  by  the  subject  is  exhibited 
with  a  clearness  of  arrangement  and  a  definiteness  of  application  that  render  it  per- 
ceptible to  the  simplest  apprehension." — hew  York  Mail  atid  Express. 

"A  useful  and  thorough  piece  of  work.  One  of  the  best  treatises  which  the 
general  reader  can  use." — Lojidon  Daily  Chronicle. 

"Conceived  in  a  popular  spirit,  yet  with  strict  regard  to  the  modern  standards. 
The  title  is  fully  borne  out.  No  want  of  color  in  the  descriptions." — London  Daily 
News. 

"The  plan  laid  down  results  in  an  admirable  English  history." — London  Morning 
Pos^t. 

"Dr.  Aubrey  has  supplied  a  want.  His  method  is  undoubtedly  the  right  one." — 
Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

"  It  is  a  distinct  step  forward  in  history  writing;  as  far  ahead  of  Green  as  he  was  of 
Macaulay,  though  on  a  differtnt  Hue.  Green  gives  the  picture  of  England  at  different 
times — Aubrey  goes  deeper,  showing  the  causes  which  led  to  the  changes." — New 
York  World. 

"  A  work  that  will  commend  itself  to  the  student  of  history,  and  as  a  comprehen- 
sive and  convenient  reference  book." — The  Argonaut. 

"  Contains  much  that  the  ordinary  reader  can  with  difficulty  find  elsewhere  unless 
he  has  access  to  a  library  of  special  works." — Chicago  Dial. 

"  Up  to  date  in  its  narration  of  fact,  and  in  its  elucidation  of  those  great  principles 
that  underlie  all  vital  and  worthy  history.  .  .  .  The  painstaking  division,  along  with 
the  admirably  complete  index,  will  make  it  easy  work  for  any  student  to  get  definite 
views  of  any  era,  or  any  particular  feature  of  it.  .  .  .  The  work  strikes  one  as  being 
more  comprehensive  than  many  that  cover  far  more  space." — The  Christian  In- 
telligencer. 

"One  of  the  most  elaborate  and  noteworthy  of  recent  contributions  to  historical 
literature." — New  Havefi  Register. 

"  As  a  popular  history  it  possesses  great  merits,  and  in  many  particulars  is  excelled 
by  none.  It  is  full,  careful  as  to  dates,  maintains  a  generally  praiseworthy  impartiality, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  read." — Buffalo  Express. 

"  These  volumes  are  a  surprise  and  in  their  way  a  marvel.  .  .  .  They  constitute  an 
almost  encylopsedia  of  English  history,  condensing  in  a  marvelous  manner  the  facts 
and  principles  developed  in  the  history  of  the  English  nation.  .  .  .  The  work  is  one  of 
unsurpassed  value  to  the  historical  student  or  even  the  general  reader,  and  when  more 
widely  known  will  no  doubt  be  appreciated  as  one  of  the  remarkable  contributions  to 
English  history  published  in  the  ct.x\tVirY."— Chicago  Universalist. 

"In  every  page  Dr.  Aubrey  writes  with  the  far  reaching  relation  of  contemporary 
incidents  to  the  whole  subject.  The  amount  of  matter  these  three  volumes  contam  is 
marvelous.  The  style  in  which  they  are  written  is  more  than  satisfactory.  .  .  .  The 
work  is  one  of  unusual  importance." — Hartford  Post. 


New  York :   D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


DATE  DUE 


AY   3  0  20* 


UNIVERSITY  PRODUCTS,  INC.   #859-5503 


